And why does the US need a manned strategic bomber except to serve multiple purposes which are less about nuclear annihilation but the usual global projection of dominance in regional operational areas. And then there's always long-range strategic bomber envy for flights lasting more than four hours. But the money expended on this MIC boondoggle could fund public education for every American
“Eventually it will replace, it will be the long-range strike bomber for us at a point,” Clark said during a US House Armed Services hearing.
Until the new LRS-B comes online, the United States will have to continue modernizing the existing B-2 and B-52 bombers as well as associated weapons, Clark explained.
He noted the roadmap for modernization is “critical to preserving our dominance against next generation capabilities.”
The B-52 bombers are more than 50 years old, and the B-2’s have been fielded for slightly over 25 years. The US Air Force previously estimated a 2020 timetable for the fielding of the LRS-B. The United States is expected to purchase 80 to 100 of the next generation bombers at an estimated cost of $550 million each.
The US Air Force program to replace the older strategic bombers has faced multiple delays, and the LRS-B predecessor program was scrapped altogether in 2009.
China needs to develop a new long-range strike bomber capable of attacking targets farther out in the Pacific. This is the principal conclusion of a meeting of Chinese military officials, according to AFP citing a full-page China Daily article published last Tuesday as its source.
In the meeting the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) was also referred to as a “strategic force” a title usually reserved for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Second Artillery Corps – Beijing’s “de facto strategic missile force,” according to China Daily.
The new bomber should be capable of striking targets as far as the “second island chain” – an area stretching from the Kurils in the North through Japan, the Bonins, the Marianas, the Carolines and Indonesia in the South – the paper further states.
The PLA’s definition of a long-range strategic bomber is a minimum range of 8,000 km (5,000 miles) without refueling and the capacity to carry a payload of more than 10 tons of air-to-ground ammunition.