A GUIDE FOR STRATEGIC AIRCRAFT DECISIONS

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a guide for thinking through strategic aircraft decisions, not to advance specific recommendations concerning the modernization of the U.S. strategic aircraft force. The current strategic aircraft problem is viewed as the trade-off of future alternatives--an all-advanced technology bomber (ATB) force and a mixed-force with new cruise missile carriers and ATBs--for one hundred B-1 bombers in the 1980s and a mixed-force of cruise missile carriers and ATBs in the 1990s with the B-1 serving as the cruise missile carrier. Rather than proposing and defending one particular course of action, the thesis uses this conceptual framework to integrate and to examine the issues involved in strategic aircraft decisions.