By Marina Malenic
A decision by the Pentagon earlier this month to reexamine a next generation bomber program does not indicate the end of the effort, a top Air Force general said yesterday.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced his intention to wait until a major four-year review of Pentagon weapon acquisitions is completed before deciding how to proceed with a new bomber procurement.
Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of 8th Air Force, Barksdale AFB, La., said yesterday that he understands Gates’ decision to be tied to nuclear treaty negotiations with Russia and two major Pentagon reviews, rather than any outright rejection of the bomber or its mission.
“My optimistic read was that he was not willing to commit to a program until some things were worked out–partly in the [Quadrennial Defense Review]–but I think a piece of it is also tied to the [Nuclear Posture Review] and follow-on START” negotiations, Elder told reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington.
“What you don’t want to do is lock yourself into an airplane until you know what your timing is,” he added. “Why would I launch a program this year that puts me in a bad position in terms of how I negotiate?”
The 8th Air Force, otherwise known as Air Forces Strategic, serves as the air component headquarters to U.S. Strategic Command.
Elder called long-range strike a “signature mission” of the Air Force.
“The idea of having this capability is to be able to project power around the world to enable your diplomats and your national security apparatus to have some tea,” he said.
“I don’t believe that there’s any thought that the nation should abandon having a bomber force.”
Elder said Air Force leaders envision the next generation bomber, first and foremost, as a stealthy platform.
The F-22 Raptor fighter jet “is a magnificent platform, so as a bomber person, it makes you drool at the thought that you would have a bomber…along those lines,” he said. “Having a next generation stealth aircraft would give us a huge capability.”
He noted that the Air Force sees the possibility of a hypersonic 2035 bomber. But for the 2018 bomber, “the speed piece of it is not as important as the range and payload.”
Further, Elder said the B-52 Stratofortress will remain viable long past 2018, when the service had expected to begin procuring a next generation bomber. He said the platform will remain in service until at least 2040, but one of the nuclear-capable missiles it carries–the Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM)–will be decommissioned far sooner.
“2018 was an important date to put on the wall in terms of what they were looking for,” Elder told reporters. “It doesn’t have to do so much with when the B-52 is going out [of service], but that’s tied to when the ALCM is really getting ready to go out of the inventory…The B-52 itself is good until 2040, so 2018 is not tied to the air frame.”
The ALCM has been operational since 1982 and initially had a 10-year service life, according to Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Aptekar.
“ALCM is solely carried on the B-52 (8 internal and 12 external),” she said via e-mail. “The ALCM fleet has undergone a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) to allow ALCM retention to at least 2020 with the possibility to extend to 2030.”
In addition to its nuclear deterrence mission, Elder revealed that the B-52 has been called into service in the homeland defense arena.
“We work with the Navy and the 1st Air Force, and we’ve done a number of missions,” he explained. “We go out with some broad area surveillance platforms, and the Navy gives us a ship to locate based on a signature. We’ve gone out a thousand nautical miles or more off the coast.”
He noted that fighters and bombers equipped with pods and transmitter packages can relay imagery. For example, following Hurricane Ike in September 2008, B-52s were given a reconnaissance mission.
“They were trying to get some [MQ-1] Predators (unmanned aerial vehicles) in to do some surveys and the weather still wasn’t conducive to [sending in the] Predators, and the [Federal Aviation Administration] was concerned about unmanned vehicles operating, so we went out with a B-52 and the work took us a little over two hours–two missions, two hours apiece,” Elder said.
He added that the Air Force is working to make “every platform a sensor.”