A senator from an ICBM state wants the Air Force’s new Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB) to be nuclear capable, or certified, as soon as it enters inventory.
“We should be building a nuclear capability into the new bomber’s development cost and certification, not kicking that can down the road and threatening the future viability of the air-based leg of our triad,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said Tuesday during a Peter Huessy Capitol Hill breakfast series event.
Hoeven said it was unclear if the LRSB would be nuclear-capable upon entering inventory or if it would require later upgrades. The Air Force requested $914 million in research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds in its fiscal year 2015 budget request for LRSB, which service brass consistently name as one of the Air Force’s top priorities.
Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick said the new bomber will be built with features and components necessary to ensure the nuclear certification effort completes within 2 years after conventional initial operational capability (IOC).
The Air Force plans on procuring between 80 and 100 new bombers, but whether the service actually buys that many is yet to be seen as the service originally envisioned a fleet of 132 B-2s in the 1980s. The Air Force ended up buying only 20 B-2s as the program was beset with cost and scheduling problems (Defense Daily; Feb. 10, 2012). DoD is aiming for a new bomber unit cost of around $550 million.
Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB, both in North Dakota, host a portion of the United States’ ICBM fleet.