convore.json/groups/socal-martial-law-alerts/new-stealth-bomber-could-control-drones-fire-lasers-bust-bunkers/messages.json

[{"user_id": 11626, "stars": [], "topic_id": 8695, "date_created": 1298531037.4694021, "message": "The Air Force\u2019s new stealth bomber might do more than just drop bombs, top generals said in recent days. The so-called \u201cLong-Range Strike\u201d plane \u2014 likely to be designated B-3 \u2014 could also carry bunker-busting, rocket-boosted munitions, high-powered lasers for self-defense and datalinks, and consoles for controlling radar-evading drones.\r\n\r\nThese add-ons, described by Air Force generals Philip Breedlove, William Fraser and David Scott, are meant to make the new bomber more lethal and harder to shoot down, even in the face of rapidly-modernizing air defenses such as China\u2019s. \u201cThe purpose of this aircraft is to survive in an Anti-Access Area Denial environment,\u201dScott said, using the latest Pentagon term for defended airspace.\r\n\r\nTo that end, the bomber\u2019s lasers might zap incoming missiles and fighters; the drones could fly ahead to scout and disable air-defense radars; the bunker-busters should ensure the bomber can actually destroy the enemy\u2019s facilities once it breaks through the defenses.\r\n\r\nWith just $3.7 billion budgeted over the next five years to develop the bomber, lasers, bunker-busters, and drone-controls might seem unaffordable. And risky, considering the Air Force has said it must stick with \u201cproven\u201d technologies to keep the new bomber on-budget.\r\n\r\nIn fact, the bomber and its enhancements could be surprisingly far along the development process. The airframe itself might already be flying in prototype form, according to an investigation by ace reporter Bill Sweetman. Each of the add-on capabilities already exists, too, though not all in the same aircraft.\r\n\r\nFor years, the Air Force has been working on a chemical laser installed in the fuselage of a 747 freighter and fired from a turret mounted to the airliner\u2019s nose. The Airborne Laser was originally meant for a combat role intercepting ballistic missiles, but in 2009 Secretary of Defense Robert Gates downgraded it to a strictly test asset, citing its high cost, short firing range and vulnerability. Future military lasers will dispense with the chemicals in favor of solid crystals, potentially making them much smaller, safer and more reliable. That\u2019s the kind of laser we can expect to see on the new bomber.\r\n\r\nBunker-busting bombs have been around since World War II. In their modern form, they date back to the 1991 Gulf War. Today\u2019s 5,000-pound GBU-28 bunker-buster can be carried by the F-15E and by bombers. For more deeply-buried targets, the Pentagon is working on the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is so big only the B-2 and B-52 can haul it.\r\n\r\nTo save on cost, the new bomber will be smaller and therefore carry less ordnance than the B-2. MOP probably won\u2019t fit. Noting that penetrating-capability is a function of mass and velocity, the Air Force Research Laboratories is working on a rocket-boosted bunker-buster that would be a fraction of the MOP\u2019s size while being just as lethal against underground targets.\r\n\r\nDrone controls might seem the most futuristic of the new bomber\u2019s enhancements, but in many ways they\u2019re the farthest along in development. Boeing is installing datalinks and consoles for robot-control in its new \u201cBlock III\u201d Apache helicopters. Last fall, the Air Force demonstrated it could control Scan Eagle drones from inside an airborne E-3 radar plane.\r\n\r\nAnd in 2009, the Air Force started fitting B-52s and F-16s with the Raytheon-built Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, a missile-size drone that can spoof or jam enemy radars. The current decoy model is autonomous \u2014 you fire it and forget about it \u2014 but Raytheon has offered to install a datalink allowing the decoy to \u201ctalk\u201d to the launching plane. Refined a bit further, the same technology could be applied to the new bomber\u2019s scout drones.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s not clear if these scout drone will be new designs or something already in service. Our money\u2019s on an existing drone. In any event, there will be two different scout bots associated with the new bomber, according to Breedlove. These \u201cutility infielders,\u201d as Breedlove called them, must be \u201cvery stealthy\u201d and capable of a range of missions, from radar-jamming to network-hacking and spying.\r\n\r\nIn an event, the add-ons don\u2019t all have to be ready before the bomber\u2019s scheduled debut in the mid-2020s. The Air Force wants to field the 100-or-so bombers in \u201cspirals\u201d \u2014 that is, small batches of increasing sophistication. The first models might not have bunker-busters, lasers or drone controls. Those systems would be inserted as soon as they\u2019re ready \u2014 and as soon as the Air Force can afford them.\r\n\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2011/02/northrop_grumman_NGB_bomber_1-660x440.jpg\r\n\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/new-stealth-bomber-could-control-drones-fire-lasers-bust-bunkers/", "group_id": 3920, "id": 195855}]