Air Force Has No Set Schedule for Next-gen Long-range BomberNovember 12, 2010

 

bombers

Several aging workhorses in the U.S. Air Force arsenal need to be replaced, according to many military analysts, but they must first put in several more years of service. The Air Force’s refueling tanker has been mired for almost a decade in a controversial bidding process. That process, however, is coming close to a conclusion and the Air Force is accepting bids from prime contractors to build the new fleet.

The timeline to see the next generation of long-range bombers to replace the B-1, B-52 and the B-2 is not so clear. In fact, a senior Air Force official recently noted that the service has no schedule for submitting a proposal to Defense Secretary Robert Gates,according to the National Journal.

Instead, Lt. Gen. Philip Breedlove, the Air Force's operations, plans and requirement chief, said that the service plans to maintain the existing bombers until the next-generation is operational, according to the article. "We are right now working out what we need to do to our existing fleet," said Breedlove. "We are continuing to update the B-1, B-52 even, and the B-2 to be able to have the capability we need far enough" in the future.

Earlier this summer, Boeing announced it had won a contract worth up to $12 billion from the Pentagon to modernize over eight years the weapon systems on B-52 long-range bombers. That is about $140 million for the 85 B-52 bombers in the Air Force fleet, according to The Seattle Times. This contract comes a year after Boeing received a contract worth $750 million to modernize communications and surveillance equipment on the B-52 fleet.

But Breedlove said the Air Force realizes there is a point of diminishing returns from the old long-range bombers, especially as threats become more advanced, according to the National Journal article. "There is a time out there where, if we do nothing, we have no capability," he said. He added that the Air Force is not standing still and has "moved pretty rapidly" to discuss next-gen long-range bomber capabilities.

The article notes that the Air Force had planned to ready a long-range bomber by 2018, but Gates instead pushed the service to review the future needs of such an arsenal, including considering the role of unmanned long-range bombers.