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Why It's So Damned Hard To Build a New Bomber

  • 16-11-2015 8:29pm
    #1
    _Tombstone_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭


    http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a18130/will-long-range-strike-bomber-succeed/
    Northrop Grumman didn't get long to celebrate winning one of the most important defense contracts of the 21st century. The week after it secured a $55 billion-and-growing deal to build the Long-Range Strike Bomber (LSRB), the successor to the B-2, losing bidders Boeing and Lockheed filed a protest against the stealth bomber contract award. This may go nowhere—only about one-fifth of such protests succeed. But it's one hint of just how dragged-out and difficult the process of bringing a new bomber into this world can be.

    The LSRB, in fact, represents the military's fourth attempt to replace the venerable B-52 Stratofortress. More bombers get taken out by Congress than by surface-to-air missiles, and the new LRSB follows several bomber projects which have not gone according to plan. What happened to those dreams? And will the LRSB go the same way, or get fourth-time lucky?
    Good little story on the history of the Bombers, B1, B2, B52, XB-70 Valkyrie and all their variants, the mega cost and the waste/stupidity of it all.

    The new LSRB will apparently use largely existing materials and technologies, current stealth Tech seen primarily on modern aircraft like the B-2 Spirit bomber, the F-22 and F-35 fighters, and the experimental unmanned combat drone X-47B is weak against ultra-high-frequency (UHF) radar.

    The Chinese came out with a paper this weak on new 5/16 of an inch thick that can safeguard stealth planes against UFH detection. The material tunes itself to a range of detection frequencies, protecting against a large swath of radar scans.


    Why release it though is anyones guess.

    STEALTHY SHAPE-SHIFTING SKIN COULD WRAP CHINESE AIRCRAFT


Comments

  • #2
    billy few mates
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,920 ✭✭✭billy few mates


    Technological advances have shown that you don't actually need a bomber to fly in and fly out to deliver its payload, aerial bombardment can be just as easily achieved with stand off and remotely delivered munitions. pin point accuracy of Cruise missiles and drones make it a lot safer and cost effective than designing and building a bomber to do pretty much the same thing. There's plenty of life left in the B2 and B52 program in areas where dumb targeting can be done....


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