By Marina Malenic
The Air Force’s latest proposal to build a new bomber aircraft is gaining traction, with senior leaders expected to review the plan before any further funding is requested in the president’s FY ’12 defense budget.
“It’s been moving very quickly since we were given the task to come up with a new proposal,” said Lt. Gen. Philip Breedlove, the deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements.
“When our team is able to give the Secretary of Defense a final set of well-informed recommendations, he’ll take those under advisement,” he added.
Breedlove was speaking to reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates suspended the Air Force’s next-generation bomber development plans over a year ago, asking service officials to better flesh out ideas before proceeding. The president’s FY ’11 defense spending request includes a small amount of money for industrial base sustainment, but the FY ’12 request is expected to have substantial seed money for a full-scale development effort.
Ever since Gates sent the Air Force back to the drawing board, Pentagon officials have said they envision development of several new weapons capable of everything from long- range and prompt global strike to electronic attack and persistent surveillance. They have all emphasized that cost will be a major driver of the program to develop a new “family of systems.”
Breedlove said that family of systems would be “dependent” on the Air Force’s stealthy fighter aircraft fleet.
“Our fifth-generation, low observable fleet will be part of how the family of systems is used in any threat zone,” he explained.
In addition, the Air Force is examining the possibility of buying “longer range and more capable” air-to-surface missiles, which could be delivered “by any current platform or any platform we buy in the future,” the general said.
He added that land- and sea-launched missiles could also be part of the portfolio, with long-range “prompt global strike” missiles as part of a maritime aspect to the family of systems.
Air Force officials have recently said the service needs a new “penetrating bomber” aircraft and that they expect to start developing such a platform in the next budget cycle, which the Pentagon will unveil in February (Defense Daily, Sept. 15). Service Secretary Michael Donley said any new bomber fleet ought to be larger than the 21- aircraft B- 2 Spirit production numbers “but not so large that we cannot afford it.” The secretary said the Air Force is looking to “avoid the mistakes of previous bomber programs” (Defense Daily, Sept. 14).
Breedlove said the service is “looking at a platform that may or may not be manned, or may be optionally manned.”
“We are going to deliver to the Secretary of Defense a well-informed, fiscally informed set of options,” he said.
In the mean time, Breedlove noted, the Air Force is upgrading and maintaining its B-1, B-2 and B-52 fleets.
“We are making sure the current fleet can get us into the time frame that, if our leadership makes the decision, would support that new long-range strike platform,” he said.
According to a study released in September by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, any new bomber aircraft should be stealthy, nuclear hardened, able to carry at least 20,000 pounds of ordnance, optionally manned, with a 4,000 nautical-mile range (Defense Daily, Sept. 17).
The CSBA analysis estimates that a 100,000-pound airplane able to carry 20,000 pounds of ordnance would cost $36 billion for 50 aircraft or $46 billion for 100, inclusive of development costs. A126,000-pound airplane capable of hauling 40,000 pounds of bombs would cost $44 billion for a fleet of 50 or $56 billion for 100.