The head of the United States Strategic Command doesn’t believe that 100 Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider long-range bombers will be enough, and forty-five more should be produced.
Speaking at the McAleese and Associates annual Defense Programs Conference earlier this month, General Anthony J. Cotton, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, called for the service to acquire 145 Raiders and said he believes more AGM-181 Long Range Stand-Off Weapons are also required.
More Raiders Please, 100 Bombers Won’t Cut It
Current plans call for the United States Air Force to purchase 100 B-21s in the coming decade, replacing the service’s aging fleet of Rockwell B-1B Lancer and Northrop B-2 Spirit bombers. The Raider, the first new bomber developed in a generation, will also operate alongside the even older Cold War-era Boeing B-52 Stratofortress long-range bombers through the 2050s or later.
Cotton suggested that increasing the number of Raiders to 145 could allow the Air Force to address the growing threats to the global state.
“The production rate that was agreed upon was, I think, in [that] geopolitical environment. That’s a little different than the geopolitical environment we will face for decades. Hence, as a customer, I would love to see larger production rates,” Cotton said during the conference.
According to figures from National Defense, the per-cost bomber currently stands at around $692 million “based on a buy of 100 aircraft. An additional forty-five aircraft would come to about $31.1 billion.”
Integrate the Raiders and B-52s
The Air Force maintains a fleet of seventy-six B-52s, including fifty-eight active with the 2nd and 5th Bomb Wings and eighteen in reserve with the 307th Bomb Wing. A total of 744 Stratofortress bombers were built, and production ended in October 1962.
The remaining aircraft have been steadily upgraded and are on track to receive additional improvements, including new engines and new navigation and radar stations.
Cotton noted that with 145 Raiders and the existing B-52s, the service would have 220 bombers. with one to spare, but that assumes there are no mishaps or other problems.
Even though the B-52s continue to be upgraded, almost to the point that the aircraft could be described as being akin to the Ship of Theseus with so many original parts replaced, the airframes are still older than many of the parents, or even grandparents, of the current crews flying the bombers.
Moreover, the upgrades are running late and costing more than initially planned.
Then, why does the service not seek to increase the number of B-21s to 200 and simply retire the B-52s, or at least reduce its dependence on the older aircraft?
Issues Beyond the Raiders
Cotton said the Pentagon needs to focus on more than just the Raiders. He noted that the intercontinental ballistic missiles under the U.S. Air Force’s Sentinel program and the U.S. Navy’s Columbia-class nuclear-powered missile submarines must remain on track.
Both programs are running behind schedule. Last July, the Air Force notified Congressional lawmakers that the Sentinel triggered a Nunn-McCurdy breach when it exceeded the Program Acquisition Unit Cost (PAUC) by 25 percent.
The U.S. Navy continues to face delays due to a lack of shipyards, and that has impacted the Columbia-class program and could leave the sea service in a serious bind in the coming years.
As Maya Carlin previously reported for The National Interest, “Newport News Shipbuilding and Electric Boat are jointly tasked with producing the dozen planned Columbia-class submarines, with the former responsible for detail planning and engineering analysis and the latter acting as the prime contractor for the program.”
However, the program is now nearly two years behind schedule.
“We must continue to ensure we can produce the Ohio-class replacement, Columbia, at scale without further delay,” Cotton added.
This could be more significant than the issue with the bomber fleet.
Significant delays would force the U.S. Navy to extend the service life of five Ohio-class submarines to maintain nuclear deterrence, but those submarines can only remain operational for so long. Even if the issue is resolved, it will come at a cost, and the Columbia-class submarines are likely to be one of the most expensive Pentagon programs ever developed.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: at [email protected].
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