Nov 05, 2015 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: Fortune; published Nov 04, 2015)

The Air Force’s New Bomber Faces A Pentagon Budget Battle (excerpt)

As Congress seeks billion in defense cuts, America’s new $100 billion stealth bomber looks for space in the Pentagon’s long-term spending plan

The battle over who will build the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation stealth bomber came to a close last week, but a new conflict is already developing at the Pentagon. A defense budget passed Friday has Congress and military planners seeking $5 billion in defense cuts, as the Air Force prepares to squeeze another costly development program into a Pentagon budget already packed with big-ticket weapons buys.

Last week’s award of the Long Range Strike Bomber program, or LRS-B, to Northrop Grumman over a joint bid by defense giants Lockheed Martin “LMT” and Boeing “BA” marks what is expected to be the Pentagon’s last major combat aircraft program for a decade. But as defense planners embark on a slew of much-needed modernization programs over the next decade, money remains scarce—and could grow scarcer still.

With limited funds to go around, the LRS-B program could find itself competing for funds with myriad Pentagon programs amid tightening budgets. The U.S. Navy has embarked on a major program—starting in the early 2020s—to replace its fleet of Ohio-class nuclear submarines, a key component of the nation’s nuclear deterrent. The U.S. Army is engaged in a multi-billion dollar effort to upgrade its ground vehicles and plans to develop and buy a whole new fleet of helicopters in the 2020s. Meanwhile, the Army, Navy, and Marines are all engaged in the $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

Within the Air Force alone, the LRS-B will join a number of major new and ongoing programs. In the next several years, the service plans to begin replacing its fleet of E-8 ground surveillance aircraft known as JSTARS, its aging Vietnam War-vintage T-38 jet trainers, and its land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles.

A new combat rescue helicopter and a replacement for Air Force One are in the works. Meanwhile, Air Force brass have also prioritized ramping up production on both the F-35 and the KC-46 aerial refueling tanker—made by Lockheed and Boeing respectively—at the same time the LRS-B is trying to get off the ground. (end of excerpt)


Click here for the full story, on the Fortune website.

L’équipe du laboratoire de Sandia assemble un modèle 3D du futur LRSO en mars 2014 (source Sandia National Laboratories)

29 janvier 2015 Info-Aviation

Le général en charge des forces nucléaires Stephen Wilson a confié aux journalistes que l’US Air Force travaille sur un missile de croisière LRSO (Long-Range Standoff) pour armer la future flotte de bombardiers américains LRS-B (Long-Range Strike Bomber).

« Nous aurons besoin d’un missile qui peut pénétrer les défenses aériennes les plus sophistiquées. », a déclaré le général Stephen Wilson. Il a ajouté qu’une variante conventionnelle du LRSO serait construite après qu’une version à tête nucléaire soit d’abord développée. Le général a expliqué que l’US Air Force a terminé son analyse des solutions de remplacement (AoA) et attend déasormais la décision du Pentagone pour commencer l’acquisition. L’US Air Force a étudié « une variété d’options – avec des capacités différentes, et des vitesses différentes », a t-il ajouté. « Nous avons limité notre analyse aux technologies que nous maîtrisons actuellement. Mais je ne peux pas entrer dans les détails. »

Suite de l’article

Jul. 11, 2014 By Stephen Trimble - FG

Washington DC - The US Air Force has launched the competitive phase of the classified long range strike bomber by issuing a request for proposals, with Northrop Grumman and a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team poised to compete for a contract to develop and build 80-100 aircraft over the next two decades.

Details of the air force’s requirements for the new bomber are classified, and service officials are unlikely to provide more updates until a scheduled contract award in the second quarter of 2015.

“It will be an adaptable and highly capable system based upon mature technology,” says secretary of the air force Deborah Lee James.

Air force officials also have said the new bomber, also called the LRS-B, will enter service as a manned aircraft with a target unit price of $550 million. As the first new US bomber launched since the Northrop Grumman B-2A, the LRS-B is expected to replace a fleet of 76 Boeing B-52H and possibly a portion of the supersonic Rockwell B-1B fleets. A fleet of 20 B-2As will remain in service and complement the LRS-B.

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