With the introduction of (V)LO combat aircraft there is an emerging need for (V)LO combat support aircraft. For example I see the continued use of airliner derived tankers as a possible severe limitation of the mission effectivness of F-22 and F-35, since the very visible tanker race tracks give away the direction of a possible attack, even if an enemy can’t detect the (V)LO shooters themself.
But that’s only one mission. There is actually a huge need in the U.S. aerial forces for a large (V)LO combat support platform – I call it the Q/EB-2B. Using the planform of the B-2A would be the easiest way, since a completly new aircraft would require extensive testing and be hugely expensive to develop. There would however be necessary an adaptation of the internal structure and adaptation to new production technologies, all of which should be possible without huge costs by using virtual prototypes and very limited real-world flight testing – like the F-35 does.
Then a couple of days ago Lockheed flew the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA – a rebuilt Dornier 328JET). That thing is a huge evolutionary (maybe revolutionary) step for non-metallic airframes. It takes the art from basically just replacing aluminum parts with plastic parts to using complex three-dimensional shapes for major airframe sections, even a step further than Boeing does with the 787. (In that respect ACCA should have been done as a NASA project ten years ago to test the 787 technology). If viable, that technology would enable a very efficient and economical production run of a Q/EB-2B.
So here the list of missions that would justify the B-2B. A good percentage of those missions could be flown unmanned. The basic version Q/EB-2B should be IOC’d no later than 2015.
# LOITERING TANKER: Instead of KC-X or KC-Y, to refuel (V)LO aircraft closer to enemy airspace without giving away the possible attack vectors, or put the tanker itself into harms way (remember the RAND Taiwan sandbox scenario).
# THEATRE DATA RELAY, INTEGRATOR, AND DISTRIBUTOR: Overreliance on MilSat and other broadband orbital platforms is a severe choke point for the forces, especially if a reach-back to CONUS is done. GEO satellites have to be replaced with formations of a far larger number of smaller, more survivable and scaleable MEO satellites that keep the reach-back to a minimum. But the airborne component is as important and can supplement the MEO formations (which will take a long time to put in place anyway). The need for this mission is so pressing, that the Air Force puts a Bombardier bizjet prototype into Afghanistan and cries for two more.
# AIRBORNE IN-THEATRE UAV CONTROLLER: Instead of link up and back to Creech, keep it in theatre and use the satellites for something else.
# STAND-OFF BOOST PHASE BMD: The plan to put KEI on a ship (CG(X)/N) leads nowhere. Not scalable, not flexible, questionable survivability. Boost phase BMD has to be done airborne with something like a THAAD derivate. It’s a “Chrome Dome” like 24/7/365 mission perfect for UAV. A Q/EB-2B could carry those THAADs, plus a strong AESA capable of jamming or burning the electronics of a IRBM/ICBM during boost phase, and one day maybe lasers like the one in the YAL-1 are compact enough to be integrated.
# STAND-OFF LOITERING JAMMER: The EB-52 is dead, long live Q/EB-2B!
# SMALL WARS LOITERING STAND-OFF CAS: Airborne arsenal ship.
# PARASITE UAV MOTHERSHIP: MALD is a beautiful thing, but once fired you loose it. If it – and its sons and grandsons – could be made to come back, they could form a ISR and DEAD swarm based on a large aerial platform.
# STRATEGIC ISR & C2: As EP-X, and to replace EC-135, RC-135, E-6.
# LPI AWACS & JSTARS: First for the reason that even a strong emitter can benefit from being on a LO platform, and then because those flying wings can go pretty high up.
# WHAT Q/EB-2B WOULD NOT BE: A replacement for the B-2A. It could however replace the B-52 and B-1 in the small wars role and as cruise missile carrier.
And it would also not be a NGB, since that plane has to be a VLO penetrating supercruiser or be damned as a failed waste of resources.
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June 6, 2009 at 10:13 am