【Text by Observer Net, Shanmao】
According to the American magazine "Air And Space Forces Magazine" (originally "Air Force Magazine"), the U.S. Air Force is researching whether it can develop a large flying-wing stealth aircraft equipped with dozens of missiles as part of its "future air superiority." It is reported that the aircraft may be based on the currently test-flying Northrop Grumman B-21 bomber, but this concept seems to be in the "early stage," and due to limited production capacity of Northrop Grumman on the B-21, other contractors may also participate in this project.
The report said that this concept will use manned fighter jets such as F-22, F-35, and F-47, as well as potential unmanned collaborative aircraft (CCA), to detect and designate aerial targets, then have some "super-invisible large missile shooter" (in plain language: air-to-air missile arsenal aircraft) launch them, to solve the problem of low weapon-carrying capacity and poor sustained combat capability of these fighter jets. On the other hand, although it is not mentioned whether this "arsenal aircraft" is manned, considering that the B-21 project initially planned for both manned and unmanned configurations, and the B-21 also has a配套 unmanned collaborative combat bomber, these could become future air-to-air combat aircraft.
Imaginary picture of "unmanned B-21"
A senior U.S. Air Force official said that although all ideas have not yet been discussed publicly, there are other methods to achieve "affordable" scale besides the option of "using CCA to cover the sky." He said that the concept of a missile arsenal aircraft is being discussed as a solution to "offset China's numerical advantage" in the scenario of the Taiwan Strait battlefield. The U.S. believes that in this hypothetical battlefield, China, due to its proximity advantage, can deploy hundreds of fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft into the battlefield airspace without aerial refueling, while U.S. aircraft will be at the limit of their operational range, with very limited opportunities to shoot at Chinese targets. In addition (possibly because they saw the unmanned J-6 displayed at the Changchun Air Show), the report also mentions that China may deploy a large number of modified old aircraft drones to consume the U.S. air-to-air missile inventory. In a recent meeting of U.S. Air Force senior officials, someone also raised the question of "what is a fighter jet," and a senior planner said that as someone who once flew the F-15E, most of his combat operations were dropping bombs, so according to traditional methods, he would probably be counted as a bomber pilot. Therefore, the current should "go beyond the traditional old classification concept."
An idea of "using CCA to cover the sky"
As early as before the B-21's first flight at the end of 2023, Northrop had repeatedly claimed that the aircraft was the "first sixth-generation plane to take off in the world," and throughout the development and test flights of the B-21, there were discussions about the possibility of using the B-21 as some sort of "air superiority platform." For example, at an annual military journalist and editor meeting last year, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff David Allvin stated that the Air Force had not given up the possibility of allowing the B-21 to play a greater role within the NGAD program. At that time, the website "The War Zone" also analyzed that the B-21 could carry "ultra-large long-range missiles" or "a large number of smaller air-to-air missiles" according to its payload capability to perform certain air superiority missions.
B-21 in flight
The previous idea of equipping a bomber with a large number of air-to-air missiles was the B-1R program in 2004, which would replace the F-22-style Pratt & Whitney F119 turbofan engines of the B-1B and restore the inlet structure of the B-1A to shorten the range by 20%, increase the maximum speed to 2.2 Mach, and add an active phased array fire control radar and more AIM-120 mounting points. The idea of this kind of thinking on the B-21 was proposed in the late 2000s, and the Rand Corporation also suggested in 2011 that the B-1B bomber be equipped with at least 20 "Patriot" or "Standard" SM-2 missiles for "fighting against Chinese fighters," as well as using the "newly developed stealth penetration bomber" as a missile launch platform, using target indication from the F-22. However, at that time, the B-21 was still called the "Long-Range Strike Bomber" (LRS-B) project, and it was greatly affected by the pressure to expand the size of the stealth bomber fleet, so this capability was not included in the initial R&D requirements of the B-21. A former high-ranking U.S. Air Force official also said that at that time, "there was no sufficient convincing reason" to prove that the B-21 had air-to-air capabilities.
But in a drill held last summer, set as a battle between the U.S. military and China in 2035, the U.S. Pacific Command requested to include a "B-21 with air-to-air capabilities," although it is said that the air-to-air capability was not intended as a dedicated air superiority platform, but rather for self-defense.
Even so, the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command still has some reservations about the idea of using the B-21 as a "missile shooter," possibly because the U.S. Air Force bomber force is facing a serious decline in numbers, and before more B-21s begin to be delivered smoothly, its bomber fleet may fall below the previously expected minimum level, and only then hope for a gradual recovery.
In the related report of the "War Zone" website, the U.S. Air Force also considered using other aircraft besides the B-21 to perform similar air-to-air tasks, which is based on concerns about the huge production pressure faced by Northrop Grumman. Since the full-state B-21 is very expensive and complex, and some capabilities are not needed on a purely air-to-air arsenal aircraft, it is also possible to use the basic fuselage frame of the B-21 to develop a simplified sensor, communication, sacrifice some stealth capability and use an unmanned model, to significantly reduce the price and production difficulty. In addition, using the technical achievements of the B-21, integrating other flying-wing aircraft technology to develop a new, lower-cost stealth flying-wing arsenal aircraft is also a potential option.
All in all, when talking about "air superiority wings," it inevitably makes people think of...
Mark Gonsalves, Director of Future Aerospace Concepts at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies of the U.S. Space Force, proposed another idea, that the B-21 could choose a "mixed loading" weapons scheme, for example, as a penetration bomber, carrying some air-to-air weapons including weapons to suppress air defense systems makes sense, and a B-21 carrying air-to-air weapons will send some "fear effect" to the enemy interceptors, similar to the "decoy" effect of cruise missiles dropped from transport aircraft cargo pallets, creating some "uncertainty" for the enemy's decision-making. Considering that the B-21 single aircraft price is still expensive and the fleet size is limited, these bombers will still need to be used for the highest value targets in the future. Gonsalves also said that instead of a shortage of platforms, the lack of advanced medium-range radar air-to-air missile inventory is a more realistic issue. AIM-120 and subsequent AIM-260 are expensive, and the defense industry lacks the ability to mass-produce missiles to replenish the inventory. Earlier this July, the U.S. Air Force just placed a large order with Raytheon for a large number of AIM-120 air-to-air missiles, although the quantity is not public, the value is as high as $3.5 billion.
As of now, there is not even one photo of the actual AIM-260 JATM, which is undoubtedly the main air-to-air weapon of the U.S. Air Force in the future
Additionally, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has developed a small, disposable aircraft called "LongShot" as a kind of "air-to-air missile range extender" to deliver the missile to a close enough distance for launch. Although this idea "may be very cost-effective," it still needs to prove itself through some unique advantages, and in this aspect, CCA collaborative operation aircraft still has some unique significance.
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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7555818658182873642/
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