USAF Strategic Bomber Operations: B-52H, B-1B and B-2A, Operation Allied Force, Balkans 1999

In spring 1999 the NATO Alliance launched Operation Allied Force - a sustained 79 day bombing campaign against Serbia. This campaign saw the USAF employ all three types of strategic bombers in its inventory, the B-52H, B-1B and B-2A, with a diversity of guided and unguided ordnance being employed. The purpose of this volume is to describe the operational use of the triad of USAF strategic bombers employed against Serbia. It is not the remit of this volume to discuss the rights and wrongs of the campaign, or give an in depth political or military analysis, although there will, of course, be occasions when politics and ethics emerge in the narration of events. The volume also briefly describes the strategic bomber trio, B-52H, B-1B and B-2A, employed in the campaign, as well as the ordnance dropped, and narrates the strategic bomber roadway from the United States extraction from the Vietnam War in 1973 to the inventory in 1999. Appendices detail the bombers that took part in the operation and the weapons employed. All facts and figures used in the preparation of this volume have come from official source documentation such as the USAF and NATO.