Rolling Thunder

Rolling Thunder is a killstreak reward featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops. It sends in a B-52 bomber that drops bombs in the formation of a line. The killstreak is similar to the Stealth Bomber from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but lacks stealth abilities. The bombs do not affect as large an area as the Stealth Bomber but the plane drops them faster, and the bombs can now kill players inside of buildings. The B-52 which delivers the strike cannot be shot down, even by the SAM Turret. For this reason, some players may prefer this over other killstreaks (such as Attack Helicopter), as those can be shot down fairly easily and even before they have had a chance to get any kills. Also, the Attack Helicopter requires one less kill, so Rolling Thunder is preferred for fast, instant team wipeouts.

On small maps like Nuketown, a well placed Rolling Thunder can easily kill the entire enemy team as the splash damage from the bombs can penetrate deep into buildings, but can risk the player's life too.

Use of Rolling Thunder in Hardcore is questionable at best, since it is likely to kill as many teammates as it does enemies.

Trivia

 * If a teammate directs a Rolling Thunder airstrike over the player's location, the message "Rolling Thunder inbound near you!" appears on-screen.
 * This killstreak shares its name with a title from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, obtained by calling in 100 airstrikes.
 * If one does not move the target designator for the B-52 on Nuketown and just calls it in it will kill everyone on the map. (Except enemies respawning/just been killed) It is quite common to kill 6-8 people at once with one airstrike, (Including people inside the houses). There are only four safe zones and they are: the two corners of the backyards by the RC-XD tracks (Immediately get right in the corner; you will barely survive), the jeep on the east side of the map (It's recommended if the jeep has not been destroyed to just stand in the middle and die, because if you survive and the jeep explodes it will count towards the enemies killstreak), and in the staircase of either house sometimes works. It's also safe to stand against the back doors, under the balcony's, of both houses.
 * The garages in Nuketown are safe on the PC.
 * "Rolling Thunder" was the name of the B-52 bombing campaign over Vietnam in the 1960s, and the name of the killstreak is most likely a reference to this.
 * The only faction to call the B-52 by it's killstreak name, Rolling Thunder, is the Tropas. Other factions simply say "B-52", or occassionally "Carpet Bomb".
 * This is the spiritual successor to the Stealth Bomber in Modern Warfare 2.