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Old 02-26-21, 09:26 PM   #9
ET2SN
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The Air Force had a habit of elbowing its way into Navy missions.

Before the B-1, the B-52s also trained with and carried Gator and Captor mines.

During the development of the ALCM, its competitor would later be known as the Tomahawk or TLAM. The ALCM had slightly longer range but its nav system relied on changes in ground elevation. The TLAM could navigate over water, a feature the Navy really liked, which was why both missiles went into service.

The most unique missile carried by the B-52 was the D-21 drone. The D-21 looked like a miniature single-engined SR-71 Blackbird without a nose and used a smaller version of the SR's ram jet engine. They were carried by B-52Hs based out of Beale AFB and were actually launched three times to over-fly the Chinese A-bomb tests at Lop Nor, probably launched somewhere near Thailand. Two of the launches resulted in early aborts while the third actually over-flew its target and took pictures but the capsule that carried the film and cameras was lost before it could be recovered. After that, LBJ decided to pull the plug on the program.
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