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WASHINGTON — Buried within the Pentagon’s new budget request is $14 billion for an experimental new strategic bomber that has intrigued aviation buffs and has the Chinese on edge.
The project, which is being developed by major US defense contractors even as the government has shrouded details about its capabilities, has been a subject of speculation by aircraft buffs who have pored over 2014 photographs of mysterious triangular planes flying over Texas.
But now the program appears ready to take off — or at least its funding does.
The Air Force is asking for $1.2 billion for the next fiscal year to fund research and development. Funding would increase in succeeding years for a total of $14 billion over five years. The quick escalation in cash suggests the planes could be entering the production phase in a year or two.
The Air Force asked for $914 million in R&D funding in last year’s budget. But in its latest ramped-up request, the government is spelling out its plans for what it calls the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B).
So far, the military has only revealed that it will cost about $550 million per plane, for a fleet of 80 to 100 aircraft.
The companies vying to build the planes aren’t saying much.
“Basically we’ve been directed not to talk about the program because of the nature of it. That’s what our customer says,” said Randy Belote of Northrop Grumman.
“They’re keeping this very close-hold right now,” said Ken Ross, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, which is partnering with Boeing on a bid, referring to the Air Force.
The bomber would replace aging B-52 and 1980s-era B-2 stealth bombers — and would have long-range capabilities that worry China, where sketchy details about the plane have been carefully monitored in top military circles.
“The thing that they’re most concerned about is the so-called B-3, which is their name for the LRS-B [plane],” said Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon consultant who is the author of “The Hundred Year Marathon,” which chronicles the aspirations of Chinese hawks and nationalists to overtake the US.
Pillsbury, who did work for the CIA in China and spoke to top Chinese generals about the program, told The Post the new bomber is “what they most want us not to build.”
The Air Force is expected to award a contract for the plane this spring.
Little is known about the plane — including whether it would be a piloted craft or a drone. A new Northrop Grumman ad that ran during the Super Bowl in DC and Dayton, Ohio, markets Sunday shows a pilot wearing aviators staring admiringly at a sleek new aircraft cloaked in a gray tarp.
“Building aircraft, the likes of which the world has never seen before: This is what we do,” says the narrator in the ad. “That was really representative of any future aircraft that any of our customers may need,” said another Northrop Grumman spokesman, Tim Paynter.
The government apparently wants the plane because rivals are figuring out how to counter stealth technology, which is meant to elude anti-aircraft defenses, in older models.
“Increasingly sophisticated adversaries and highly contested environments will challenge the ability of Air Force legacy fighters and bombers to engage in heavily defended areas,” according to the administration’s budget submission.
According to the budget, the aircraft “must be able to penetrate highly contested environments, have top-end low observability characteristics, and loiter capability … This follow-on bomber represents a key component to the joint portfolio of conventional and nuclear deep-strike capabilities.”
Air Force Major Melissa Milner said the escalating costs in later years indicate that the project is moving toward “the actual air training and testing” of the plane. “I don’t have any idea as to what level the aircraft is at” right now,” she said.
It’s not known if there is additional classified funding.
© 2015 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Pentagon’s budget includes $14B for experimental bomber | New York Post
The project, which is being developed by major US defense contractors even as the government has shrouded details about its capabilities, has been a subject of speculation by aircraft buffs who have pored over 2014 photographs of mysterious triangular planes flying over Texas.
But now the program appears ready to take off — or at least its funding does.
The Air Force is asking for $1.2 billion for the next fiscal year to fund research and development. Funding would increase in succeeding years for a total of $14 billion over five years. The quick escalation in cash suggests the planes could be entering the production phase in a year or two.
The Air Force asked for $914 million in R&D funding in last year’s budget. But in its latest ramped-up request, the government is spelling out its plans for what it calls the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B).
So far, the military has only revealed that it will cost about $550 million per plane, for a fleet of 80 to 100 aircraft.
The companies vying to build the planes aren’t saying much.
“Basically we’ve been directed not to talk about the program because of the nature of it. That’s what our customer says,” said Randy Belote of Northrop Grumman.
“They’re keeping this very close-hold right now,” said Ken Ross, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, which is partnering with Boeing on a bid, referring to the Air Force.
The bomber would replace aging B-52 and 1980s-era B-2 stealth bombers — and would have long-range capabilities that worry China, where sketchy details about the plane have been carefully monitored in top military circles.
“The thing that they’re most concerned about is the so-called B-3, which is their name for the LRS-B [plane],” said Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon consultant who is the author of “The Hundred Year Marathon,” which chronicles the aspirations of Chinese hawks and nationalists to overtake the US.
Pillsbury, who did work for the CIA in China and spoke to top Chinese generals about the program, told The Post the new bomber is “what they most want us not to build.”
The Air Force is expected to award a contract for the plane this spring.
Little is known about the plane — including whether it would be a piloted craft or a drone. A new Northrop Grumman ad that ran during the Super Bowl in DC and Dayton, Ohio, markets Sunday shows a pilot wearing aviators staring admiringly at a sleek new aircraft cloaked in a gray tarp.
“Building aircraft, the likes of which the world has never seen before: This is what we do,” says the narrator in the ad. “That was really representative of any future aircraft that any of our customers may need,” said another Northrop Grumman spokesman, Tim Paynter.
The government apparently wants the plane because rivals are figuring out how to counter stealth technology, which is meant to elude anti-aircraft defenses, in older models.
“Increasingly sophisticated adversaries and highly contested environments will challenge the ability of Air Force legacy fighters and bombers to engage in heavily defended areas,” according to the administration’s budget submission.
According to the budget, the aircraft “must be able to penetrate highly contested environments, have top-end low observability characteristics, and loiter capability … This follow-on bomber represents a key component to the joint portfolio of conventional and nuclear deep-strike capabilities.”
Air Force Major Melissa Milner said the escalating costs in later years indicate that the project is moving toward “the actual air training and testing” of the plane. “I don’t have any idea as to what level the aircraft is at” right now,” she said.
It’s not known if there is additional classified funding.
© 2015 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Pentagon’s budget includes $14B for experimental bomber | New York Post
