LRS-B Details Emerge: Major Testing, Risk Reduction Complete

[F-22Raptor]

I'd be very surprised if its going to be a subsonic plane. The entire theater has changed, with China (and soon to follow Russia) building large quantities of high speed ballistic missiles (Mach 8-10) and Hypersonic vehicles. We can't be flying these puppies from Whiteman and estimating they'll reach the target in 36 hours. I think you'll see some sort of a repeat of a Blackbird type speedy platform, but much more sophisticated.

It's certainly possible. We have to remember that the military is not developing the B3 into a "do all" aircraft. They are taking a "family of systems" approach to drive down costs. One of those systems is the still classified RQ-180 stealth drone. The RQ-180 will be able to track mobile SAMS and TELS in denied airspace and relay that information back to the central node, the B3. There's been rumors that another stealth drone is under development for electronic attack. I have no doubt though the B3 will be an incredible aircraft when completed.

 

[gambit]

I'd be very surprised if its going to be a subsonic plane. The entire theater has changed, with China (and soon to follow Russia) building large quantities of high speed ballistic missiles (Mach 8-10) and Hypersonic vehicles. We can't be flying these puppies from Whiteman and estimating they'll reach the target in 36 hours. I think you'll see some sort of a repeat of a Blackbird type speedy platform, but much more sophisticated.

No need to be surprise.

There are many advantages of being subsonic, least of all fuel economy. High subsonic offers the best compromise between competing demands such as load capability, design constraints, maintainability, deployability, and so on. And with the advent of 'smart' weapons where the bomber can essentially launch and forget, the need for supersonic flight to escape hostile airspace decreases considerably. When we flew the B-2 from CONUS, it was because we have the luxury to do so, but if there is a real war, deployability is a must and the B-2 could have been deployed to forward basing if necessary.

In looking at the the B-2, it is evident that 'stealth' was the first consideration, next is load carrying, and the flying wing design automatically restricted the jet to subsonic while able to carry demanded load. If there is a need for supersonic flight, my guess is that the new bomber will have at best supersonic dash but not sustained supersonic speed.