
DAYTON, Ohio--The U.S. Air Force has said that it plans to retire its fleet of 44 Boeing [BA] B-1B Lancer bombers by 2031, yet the service is also upgrading the Bone to adapt it for the Indo-Pacific where combat aircraft may have to rely on decentralized beyond line-of-sight, air-to-air communications without an AWACS and where new hypersonic weapons may come into play. "The B-1 has ethernet at the back of the jet that came in with IBS," Joseph Stupic, Air…