Five years ago, Air Force officials announced plans to acquire a new long-range bomber by 2018. Gates subsequently halted development of a new bomber, but relented in January 2011 when he announced that a next-generation bomber would proceed in fiscal year 2012. The announcement, part of a larger reshuffling of defense priorities, did not reveal how much funding the administration will seek or when it expects, now, for the new bomber to become operational.
Although upgrade programs and technology improvements have enhanced their capabilities – especially for precision night bombing in a counterinsurgency environment – the Air Force still relies on a fleet of bombers that is its smallest since before Pearl Harbor. It has just 160 aircraft, including 65 B-1B Lancers, 19 B-2 Spirits, and 76 B-52 Stratofortresses.
The Air Force has long pondered a family of systems, including a manned bomber, to carry out what it prefers to call the “long range strike” mission. In November 2010 – two months before Gates gave the go-ahead on the bomber – then-Lt. Gen. Philip Breedlove, the Air Force’s operations, plans, and requirements chief, told reporters that there is “no timeframe yet” for submitting a proposal for a bomber replacement to Gates.
Breedlove, who subsequently became Air Force vice chief of staff and pinned on a fourth star, said airmen will work to breathe new life into existing bombers to keep them effective until the next long-range strike platform and its support systems can be made ready. “We are right now working out what we need to do to our existing fleet,” said Breedlove. “We are continuing to update the B-1B, B-52 even, and the B-2 to be able to have the capability we need far enough to the right [the future], so we can then bring on the family of systems.”
Breedlove was not able to say when or how the Air Force would provide further upgrades to the current bomber fleet. He acknowledged that the effectiveness of the older bombers will “diminish over time” against increasingly sophisticated and capable threats. “There is a time out there where, if we do nothing, we have no capability,” Breedlove acknowledged. But he insisted that the Air Force is “not standing still” and will keep the B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s operationally effective until a new family of long-range strike options, including a new bomber, becomes available.
