By Marina Malenic
The United States will likely develop a new bomber airplane over the next decade, but the Air Force’s top military leader said yesterday that he does not expect the next- generation platform to be capable of conducting the bomber mission entirely on its own.
“It might not have all the capabilities that you would embed in a single platform to do that whole mission all by itself,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told reporters on the sideline of the IFPA-Fletcher national security conference in Washington, D.C.
“Part of this will involve a commitment to a family of systems that are more interdependent and mutually supportive than we have looked at previously,” he added.
Schwartz said he is confident that the Air Force has answered questions raised by Defense Secretary Robert Gates about the proposed program. Gates suspended the effort a year ago, asking the Air Force to better flesh out its ideas before proceeding with development.
Schwartz said yesterday that he expects “certain, very finite parameters on the program” from Gates “when, and if, it is ultimately endorsed by his team.”
A formal analysis of alternatives process will likely be opened “shortly” after fiscal year 2011, Schwartz added.
Earlier in the day, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said the Pentagon plans to “mature a portfolio of capabilities–manned and unmanned, penetrating and standoff, ballistic and cruise missile” for the new long-range strike capability.
Lynn said that both military and civilian officials in the Pentagon think that a single new bomber platform would not meet the military’s needs.
He also noted that the United States will likely face greater enemy air defenses in the future, noting that the military’s ability to penetrate enemy territory is “more fraught with challenges that it has been in memory.”