Strategic bomber

A strategic bomber is a medium-to-long-range bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unlike tactical bombers, penetrators, fighter-bombers, and attack aircraft, which are used in air interdiction operations to attack enemy combatants and military equipment, strategic bombers are designed to fly into enemy territory to destroy strategic targets (e.g., infrastructure, logistics, military installations, factories, etc.). In addition to strategic bombing, strategic bombers can be used for tactical missions. There are currently only three countries that operate strategic heavy bombers: the United States, Russia and China. The modern strategic bomber role appeared after strategic bombing was widely employed, and atomic bombs were first used during World War II. Nuclear strike missions (i.e., delivering nuclear-armed missiles or bombs) can potentially be carried out by most modern fighter-bombers and strike fighters, even at intercontinental range, with the use of aerial refueling, so any nation possessing this combination of equipment and techniques theoretically has such capability. Primary delivery aircraft for a modern strategic bombing mission need not always necessarily be a heavy bomber type, and any modern aircraft capable of nuclear strikes at long range is equally able to carry out tactical missions with conventional weapons. An example is France's Mirage IV, a small strategic bomber replaced in service by the ASMP-equipped Mirage 2000N fighter-bomber and Rafale multirole fighter. As of 2025, the United States Air Force is the largest operator with 130 strategic bombers in active service, between the B-52 Stratofortress, B-1 Lancer, and Northrop B-2 Spirit. The People's Liberation Army is second with 120 Xi'an H-6 bombers, and the Russian Air Force third, with 119 bombers between its Tu-95, Tu-22M, and Tu-160.