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Date Posted: 28-Apr-2004
JANE’S DEFENCE WEEKLY – MAY 05, 2004
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US Air Force to upgrade bomber fleet
MICHAEL SIRAK JDW Staff Reporter
Washington, DC
The US Air Force (USAF) intends to spend about $3.2 billion until 2009 to bolster the capabilities of its existing bomber fleet, according to senior service officials.
Although there has been much talk recently of pursuing a new long-range strike (LRS) capability (JDW 25 February), the existing fleet of B-1B Lancer, B-2A Spirit and B-52H Stratofortress aircraft will form the backbone of the service’s lethal power-projection capabilities until about 2040.
Accordingly, the USAF wants to improve the lethality, survivability, supportability, persistence and responsiveness of these aircraft. Above all, improvements in the aircraft connectivity to receive targeting updates and provide better situational awareness will reap dividends, these officials note.
Lt Gen Michael Moseley, USAF vice chief of staff, told the US Congress on 3 March that the air force has requested from Congress $612 million in Fiscal Year 2005 (FY05) toward these enhancements. This includes $86.5 million for modifications to the B-1B fleet of 67 aircraft, $388.4 million for the service’s 21 B-2As and $137.5 million for the 94-strong B-52H inventory.
B-1B funding would support installing the Fully Integrated Datalink on the aircraft for Link 16 and beyond-line-of-sight command-and-control connectivity and situational awareness capabilities. Work on incorporating a mixed-load weapons capability into the aircraft would also be funded, as would upgrading the aircraft’s AN/ALQ-161 defensive system and integrating the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) and AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Munition (JASSM) onto it. Flight testing of the latter, already operational on the B-52H, is under way.
B-2A upgrades include the Center Instrument Display/Link 16, which would provide “networked tactical battlefield situational awareness for improved survivability and flexible retargeting”, according to the USAF. The funding would also go towards the Radar Frequency Modification programme under which the aircraft is receiving a new radar antenna and transmitter and improvements to the maintainability of the aircraft’s low-observable skin.
Northrop Grumman announced on 19 April that it has applied a specially formulated radar-absorbing coating known as the Alternate High Frequency Material (AHFM) for the first time to a B-2A aircraft.
Duke Dufresne, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and B-2A programme manager, told JDW that the new coating will eliminate about 3,000ft of tape that is currently needed to close seams and maintain the aircraft’s low visibility to radar.
AHFM will reduce maintenance time in those areas of the aircraft from several days to several hours, according to Dufresne. The remaining B-2As will receive the material as part of the Spirit fleet’s normal depot maintenance.
The requested B-2A funding would also support installation of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) radio to meet connectivity requirements with US Strategic Command and UHF/satellite communications upgrades that allow for enhanced voice communications and the ability to upload missions in flight.
B-52H enhancements supported by the FY05 funding would include the Avionics Mid-life Improvement and Electronic Countermeasures Improvement and Combat Network Communications Technology programmes which add Link 16 and AEHF connectivity.
The USAF is also incorporating Northrop Grumman’s AN/AAQ-28 Litening targeting pod onto the aircraft so it can autonomously track, target and engage fixed targets with laser-guided bombs and assess damage to them. The targeting pod also allows the bomber’s crew to derive its own GPS co-ordinates for satellite-aided munitions like the Joint Direct Attack Munition family.
Although the capability exists now to field the Litening ER on the B-52H, the air force wants to procure the more sophisticated Litening Advanced Targeting (AT) variant. The Air Combat Command (ACC) told JDW that it seeks to procure 12 AT pods under a B-52 Combat Mission Needs Statement, with approval of the funding pending.
Beyond the 12 pods, the command said the B-52H fleet would receive the pods on an “as-needed basis from the ACC pod repository depending on the overall needs of the combat air forces”.
Flight testing of the AT pod is expected to conclude around May, followed by integration of the pod’s software on the aircraft, giving the B-52 a Litening AT capability around August, the ACC said.
The service also intends to convert 16 B-52Hs to a standoff jamming role, beginning in October, according to Gen Moseley. The USAF intends to install electronic jamming equipment in the outer wing pods of the aircraft (formerly used as fuel tanks) and has requested $500 million to the end of 2009 for this, including $57.5 million in FY05.
Secretary of the Air Force James Roche told JDW on 3 March that the service has put on hold the idea of re-engining the B-52H, which resurfaced in 2003 based on a Defense Science Board report that championed the proposal (JDW 30 April 2003).
Looking ahead, the USAF would like to begin to plot the course for a next-generation LRS capability in its FY06 budget. In February, the Air Force Materiel Command established an LRS Office and the ACC stood up an LRS Integrated Product Team. The latter will lead an LRS analysis of alternatives.
The service’s near-term goal is to define the science and technology investments, necessary for its FY06 spending proposal to Congress, that would mature the critical technologies in areas like propulsion and advanced composite materials. This would allow the start of an LRS system development and demonstration programme between 2012 and 2015, according to Gen Moseley.
In turn, this would enable a production decision between 2020 and 2025 and the subsequent fielding of the capability between 2025 and 2030, he said.
At the same time, there is talk within air force circles of accelerating this schedule.
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April 28, 2004 at 10:17 pm