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Date Posted: 11-Jun-2004
JANE’S DEFENCE WEEKLY – JUNE 16, 2004
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Modified B-1, B-2 top ‘interim’ strike options
MICHAEL SIRAK JDW Staff Reporter
Los Angeles
Boeing and Northrop Grumman have proposed modified versions of the US Air Force’s B-1B Lancer and B-2A Spirit bomber aircraft among the options they have presented to the service in response to a request for information on new long-range strike concepts that could be operational around 2015.
Boeing’s modified B-1B proposal is one of the six main concepts that the manufacturer proposed, according to company officials. Each option would offer varying degrees of the responsiveness, persistence, survivability, lethality, connectivity and affordability that the air force is seeking in the interim capability, they said. The same is true for the eight concepts proposed by Northrop Grumman, according to representatives of that company.
The enhanced Lancer, dubbed the B-1 Regional (B-1R), would feature new sensors, including possibly an advanced electronically scanned-array radar and forward-looking infra-red sensors. The aircraft would also have wideband connectivity in the cockpit for greater situational awareness, said Richard Parke, director of B-1B advanced programmes and business development.
The aircraft could also carry AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles on external pylons for self-protection, utilising the existing hardpoints on the outboard edges of the aircraft’s three bomb bays. To ensure that the bomber remains compliant with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the pylons could be modified so that they would be unable to carry nuclear weapons, said Scott White, Boeing’s general manager for the B-1B.
Parke said the B-1R would also feature new engines, swapping on a one-for-one basis the four existing GE F-101-GE-102 engines with Pratt & Whitney’s F119 power plant, which is already used on the F/A-22 Raptor multirole stealth fighter aircraft. This would increase the Lancer’s speed to around M1.6, if not more, said Parke, noting that the bomber currently cruises at M0.85, with a dash speed of M1.2.
Northrop Grumman’s enhanced version of the Spirit bomber is known as the B-2A Global Strike Capabilities Initiative (GSCI) aircraft. The thrust of the modifications would be to upgrade the aircraft’s computer processors, incorporate fibre-optic connectivity and enhance the aircraft’s satellite links, said Duke Dufrense, the company’s vice president and B-2 programme manager. This would ‘open the door’ to new capabilities like carrying mixed loads of munitions, including the Small Diameter Bomb, and assigning targets to them dynamically while in flight, he said. Global Air Traffic Management upgrades would allow the aircraft to fly at lower altitudes, he added.
Growth potential
The company had proposed the GSCI before the air force’s request for information as a means of highlighting the fact that the B-2A has much growth potential to keep it viable for decades to come, said Dufrense, noting, however, that the initiative dovetails with the needs articulated in the service’s request.
The air force tasked industry at the end of April for input into ‘global strike/global persistent attack’ capabilities that could augment the existing bomber fleet in the interim until more robust next-generation long-range strike systems are fielded around 2030.
It said that it is interested in capabilities that could “operate at extended ranges from a theatre of conflict” and penetrate hostile airspace and survive in it as it engages a variety of targets, including hardened and buried facilities, with nuclear or conventional munitions, both precision-guided and non-precision.
The request stated that a “new/modernised bomber aircraft may satisfy the proposed capability”. Industry response was due by the end of May.
In addition to the bomber aircraft modifications, both companies also proposed conventionally armed intercontinental ballistic missile as options. Boeing’s ‘Prompt Global Strike Missile’ features refurbished decommissioned Peacekeeper booster stages above which sits a common aero vehicle (CAV) that holds the weapons payload and protects it through atmospheric re-entry.
Northrop Grumman’s ‘Rapid Global Attack’ system is similar and would leverage the work that the company has under way on the Force Application and Launch from the Continental US programme, under which it is pursuing CAV designs, said Charles Boccadoro, the company’s programme manager for future strike systems.
Both companies also proposed larger bomber versions of the unmanned combat aerial vehicles that they are developing for the air force and US Navy. Boeing’s version, dubbed the X-45D, could carry about 2,268kg of payload and is the most survivable of all its aircraft options, said Parke. Northrop Grumman refers to its version as the ‘Unmanned Regional Attack’ system. It would be a derivative of the company’s X-47B project, said Boccadoro.
Boeing officials said the company also proposed a bomber version of its Blended Wing Body aircraft design as a loitering ‘arsenal aircraft’ that dispenses multiple standoff munitions. White said the largest variant could carry up to approximately 265 cruise missiles.
Parke said the company also put forward a high-altitude airship carrying relay mirrors that direct the beams of high-energy directed-energy lasers on to targets at standoff distances.
Northrop Grumman declined to detail its other concepts, but Boccadoro said the company provided the air force with a full range of options, ranging from lower-speed to high-speed response systems.
Lockheed Martin, as the third principal US military aircraft manufacturer, has also submitted proposals, some of which involve F/A-22 derivatives that maintain the Raptor’s stealth and speed, but sacrifice some agility in favour of greater payload capacities and range, according to company representatives.
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June 12, 2004 at 1:19 am