The role of the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) should expand to include sensor-shooter aircraft functions, according to a former Air Force general.
“It’s now possible to incorporate sensors, processing and avionics in a single aircraft at a fraction of what it used to cost us to do the same thing,” retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula said yesterday at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies report release. “What we previously labeled as bombers can now play dramatically broader roles than they ever did in the past.”
The Pentagon is expected to award a contract for the LRS-B program this month to either Northrop Grumman [NOC] or a Boeing [BA]-Lockheed Martin [LMT] team. The Air Force is planning to procure 80-100 bombers costing around $550 million each, with a mid-2020s rollout date. The LRS-B is meant to replace the aging B-52, B-1 and B-2 bomber fleet, set to be retired in the 2040s and 2050s.
Photo: U.S. Air Force.
The new report said the information age enables the creation of sensor-shooter aircraft that, if integrated with air, space, land and sea system nodes, “will have the capability to create a ‘combat cloud,’ a manifestation of a self-forming, self-healing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR)-strike-maneuver-sustainment complex.” The LRS-B can take on this role, the report said, and should actually be considered a long-range sensor-shooter because “it will possess a sensor suite with room for expansion and the growth potential to carry and employ weapons beyond the ‘iron bombs’ that were the defining characteristic of ‘bombers’ from the last century.”
The report highlighted “long range, large payload, high survivability, and versatility to adapt” as the bomber’s critical attributes and identifies a nuclear-capable stealth long-range sensor-shooter as “a key element of the future nuclear deterrent” that remains “useful across the conflict spectrum.”
Deptula said at the report release event on Capitol Hill that the future of the LRS-B should include “integral sensor capabilities onboard a nuclear-capable, long-range, penetrating, survivable sensor shooter” to increase the probability “of detecting previously undetectable systems and terminating them immediately.”
At the event Sen. Mike Rounds (R- S.D.) cautioned against retiring “too many bombers from the current force” during the LRS-B procurement process and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D- Mo.) said she “will absolutely be breathing down the neck of the Department of Defense as they manage this program.” Citing funding concerns for LRS-B and other defense programs, McCaskill said, “If we are expected to stand the line politically to support these programs, it’s incredibly important that they’re run well, that they’re on time, and that they are on budget.”