Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
OK, but what's a "strategic bomber?"
In the beginning, back when we new what we were doing, we had a National Policy of "Massive Retaliation at a time and place of our choosing". At the time the Air Force was the only one capable of creating a Strategy to support this Policy. And at that time no other had the atomic bomb and or the delivery method to hit the Continental USA. At that time only the USAF had a "vehicle" that could deliver an atomic weapon anywhere in the world, hence it was Strategic because it could implement our Strategy.

As more time went by and other services developed missiles Army,Navy(Polaris) and the USSR had the bomb and finally a missile to deliver it, the Air Force no longer had a monopoly on this Strategy so we moved to a National Policy of "Flexible Response" by any or all service(s). At which time we no longer had a Strategic Bomber but a more accurately described long range bomber. But the Air Force never got rid of the (SAC) Strategic Air Command structure for another what?? 40 years