The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is the US Air Force’s ultimate comeback king.

Having survived a decade-spanning rollercoaster ride of strategic and technological shifts by the skin of its teeth, it eventually emerged as one of the most effective and best-loved bombers in the American arsenal.

Forged from the imaginations of some of the USA’s brightest scientific minds as the threat of annihilation at the hands of the Soviet Union loomed large, this fearsome angel of destruction geared up for a Third World War that never came.

Yet, unexpectedly, it would rise like a phoenix from the ashes in its new Lancer incarnation, transformed into a different type of bomber that could face the challenges of modern warfare in an ever-changing world.

Affectionately known as the “Bone,” this flying behemoth cut its teeth in the late 1990s, letting its enormous 75,000 pound internal payload rain down on targets in Iraq and Kosovo before going on to prove itself as a pivotal asset in almost every American aerial campaign of the 21st century to date.