Stealth bomber upgrades could set stage for future aircraft
Upgrades could address critical capability shortfalls until the next systems are ready for combat in more than a decade, industry official says.
To secure hundreds of millions of dollars in an increasingly competitive budget environment for upgrades to its B-2 stealth bomber, Northrop Grumman Corp. is touting the plane's airframe as the ideal starting point for development and testing of the Air Force's next-generation long-range strike aircraft.
The defense giant hopes the service will agree to install new technologies intended for the next-generation bomber in the existing fleet of 21 B-2s, and company executives are urging officials to set aside a significant funding stream for upgrades over the next decade.
With plenty of power and space onboard the aircraft, the B-2 is a "good platform for bringing down the risks for the next-generation bomber," Dave Mazur, Northrop Grumman's vice president for long-range strike, said at a briefing for reporters Tuesday.
Northrop is now installing new digital communications and a specially formulated coating on the planes to reduce maintenance time, as well as a rack for smart bombs that allows the plane to drop 80 independently targeted weapons -- five times the previous capacity. But the company also is hoping increase the bombers' effectiveness and lethality by getting more "kills" per sortie and improving its ability to hit hard, deeply buried targets.
"As the threat starts to get better, we have to get better, bottom line," Mazur said.
But recognizing that defense dollars could be strained over the next several years, Mazur added that Northrop Grumman is looking for ways to boost the B-2's capabilities without draining the Air Force's pocketbook. The level of funding needed for many of the upgrades, probably on the order of $100 million to $200 million, will not be a "hard pill to swallow for the government," he asserted.
The B-2, first produced in 1989, is the Air Force's only platform for survivable, long-range, large-payload strike capability. Mazur stressed that B-2 upgrades could address critical capability shortfalls until the next systems are ready for combat more than a decade from now.
But he also said the next-generation strike platform will not replace the B-2, but rather be a complementary system that will serve a different role from the B-2. The defense industry is eagerly anticipating the Air Force's detailed planes for its next long-range strike program, expected in the next several months.
Mazur said Tuesday he expects Northrop Grumman to compete for the program, which the Air Force intends to field between 2018 and 2020.