The time is right for the Air Force to invest in a new stealth bomber program because its fleet is too small for crisis response or for a long-term campaign in any place that has strong air defense and vital targets, according to a white paper to be released this morning.
The white paper, The Case for a New Stealth Bomber, was produced by Rebecca Grant of IRIS Independent Research. Grant will present her case with retired Air Force Gen. John Corley this morning during a forum at the National Press Club. The Air Force has said it isn’t sure if it will have enough B-2s in about 10 years to be able to handle a large campaign, Grant told Defense Daily in a telephone interview yesterday.
“I think it’s important to get this started so that capability is there within a 7-10-year period rather than waiting another 20 years,” Grant said. “We see the rise of China. We want to have a credible force in their Pacific and, to do that, we need to start on the new stealth bomber now.”
The Pentagon’s shifting of focus from countries like Iraq and Afghanistan to the South Pacific calls for more stealth bombers because of the distances in theater and the need for “top of the line” capability, Grant said.
Grant said we have a potentially tough air defense environment because China has advanced surface-to-air missiles, including some of which can be based on ships, as well as a bigger inventory of fighters than “anything we’ve faced in decades.”
“From an air perspective, Iraq and Afghanistan have had a pretty easy air defense environment,” Grant said. “In Asia, you have, potentially, (a) really tough air defense environment. To deter air, you need more stealth bombers.”
With only 20 B-2s in inventory and no more than 12 or 13 available in a crisis, there is “not enough, not for deterrence,” she added.
Starting a new stealth bomber program will give the aerospace industrial base, devoid of new stealth bomber production for 30 years, a “real invigorating shot in the arm for a critical sector,” Grant said.
“This is key because designing a new stealth bomber will help invigorate the next generation of design and that is important because not only in airframe design, but stealth material and all the specialties: avionics, airframe, software that go into producing a very advanced aircraft,” she said.
Three companies Grant expects would be prime contractors in the development of a new stealth bomber would be Northrop Grumman [NOC], Boeing [BA] and Lockheed Martin [LMT]. Northrop Grumman is the incumbent with the B-2, Boeing with a “long history” of bomber work, and Lockheed Martin with its F-22 and F-35, she said. All three have also done work in unmanned aerial vehicles, too, she said.
But Grant said the “real impact” would be from partners and subcontractors, such as engine makers Pratt & Whitney [UTX], Rolls-Royce and General Electric [GE] to bigger firms such as Goodrich [GR] and down into the much smaller, specialized firms in the industry.