Key Points and Summary – The B-1B Lancer is getting Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) external pylons that reopen six long-dormant hardpoints and add up to a dozen missiles outside—on top of its 24 internal stations.
-The upgrade expands payload and clears a path to flight-test air-breathing and boost-glide hypersonic weapons while B-52 and B-21 programs stay booked.
-Budget lines in FY25–26 back the external heavy-stores effort, with Boeing leading integration.
-Revived airframes and the LAM kit keep the “Bone” relevant through the 2030s as a massed standoff shooter—extending its 75,000-lb capacity, increasing magazine depth, and giving PACAF and EUCOM a flexible strike testbed.
B-1B Lancer Getting Pylons to Fire More Weapons
Though not as old and venerable or as battle-tested as the septuagenarian Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, AKA the “BUFF” (“Big Ugly Fat F****r,” or “Big Ugly Fat Fellow” if you’re in polite company), the Rockwell B-1B Lancer, AKA the “Bone,” is no spring chicken, having made its maiden flight in prototype form in 1983 (nine years as the B-1A), thus making it a mere five years younger than the third warbird in the the United States Air Force strategic bomber triumvirate, the Northrop B-2 Spirit (the original “Stealth Bomber”).
Efforts to retire the B-1B have only proven partially successful. The old girl keeps on doggedly hanging on.
Indeed, two mothballed specimens (affectionately nicknamed “Rage” and “Lancelot”), which had been relegated to the “Boneyard” (no wordplay intended vis-à-vis the “Bone”) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona (in the vicinity of Tucson), were recently retrieved for refurbishment. Like the “BUFF,” a major reason for the Bone’s continued survival is its versatility, particularly its adaptability to more and newer weapons. As proof of this point, the B-1B is now being equipped with pylons, allowing it to launch even more weapons.
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) for the BONE
A handy source of information comes to us from Dario Leone, founder & owner of The Aviation Geek Club, in a July 11, 2025, article titled “New External Pylons will drastically expand USAF B-1B weapon capabilities.” To wit: “As already reported, Boeing said last year that proposed to the US Air Force (USAF) to transfer hypersonic missile testing from the B-52 to the B-1. This task would be accomplished by using a new bomber pylon, which would have the extra benefit of increasing the B-1’s munition-carrying capacity by 50% for many current weapons. ‘The whole point of this is for the B-1 to become the Air Force’s hypersonic testbed. Because of all the modernization efforts on the B-52, we cannot take away from what we’re doing on the B-52 today to have it test hypersonics. So, we will be doing hypersonics testing on the B-1,’ Jennifer Wong, Boeing’s director, explained.”
A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer, assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., flies over the East China Sea, Jan. 9, 2018. The Lancer serves as premier platform for America’s long-range bomber force, carrying the largest conventional payload of guided and unguided weapons in the Air Force inventory. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Peter Reft)
(NOTE: Though originally built by the now-defunct Rockwell International, the B-1B contract now falls under the purview of Boeing, which is more than a tad ironic, seeing how Boeing is the manufacturer of the B-52 that the Bone had been intended to replace in the first place. Jennifer Wong’s official job title, per her LinkedIn Profile, is Senior Director, Bomber Programs.)
Signore Leone adds that “The USAF is testing a host of air-launched hypersonic weapons as it trails behind China in the hypersonic race. Given that the B-21 stealth bomber is presently in testing, the B-1’s ongoing significance until the Raider comes online depends on the integration of hypersonic weapons.” (The Air Force brass currently projects that the Raider will be operational sometime in 2026.)
Comparison with Current B-1B Lancer Capabilities
In its present form, the B-1B Lancer packs a payload capacity of 75,000 pounds (34,000 kilograms) of ordnance.
The new weapons pylon, known as the Load Adaptable Modular (LAM), would enable the Bone to carry up to 12 missiles externally by installing six of these pylons, which would supplement the 24 already carried in its internal weapon bays, thus acting as a major force multiplier.
Boeing added that the missiles would be of two types, namely boost-glide vehicles and air-breathing missiles.
The Bone’s external hardpoints had originally been designed during the Cold War for the “doomsday mission,” i.e., penetrating deep into the heart of Mother Russia and deploying nuclear cruise missiles.
However, these were decommissioned in 1994 under treaty agreements as part of the so-called “peace dividend” from the collapse of the Soviet Union, and thus began the conversion of the Bone to the conventional bombing role. Fast-forward to December 1998, and it was during Operation Desert Fox that the Bone was finally first “blooded” in combat; this bombing campaign was initiated in response to then-Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s recalcitrant refusal to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors, and the primary mission was to strike military targets in Iraq that contributed to its ability to produce, store, maintain, and deliver weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The Way Forward for the Pylon-Packing Bone
The USAF awarded the LAM contract to Boeing back in July. According to Stefano D’Urso of The Aviationist, “The procurement of the new system is also mentioned in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal’s Justification Book under the B-1B external heavy-stores pylon program…with a budget of $10 million in FY2025 and $68.7 million in FY2026.”
Although theoretically set to retire sometime in the 2030s, upgrades such as the LAM could conceivably enable the B-1B to remain in faithful service until 2040 and beyond.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the newly published book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series.”
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