Posted on 02/15/2010 1:07:27 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The 30-year aviation plan that the Pentagon presented to Congress hints at expectations for commissioning a new long-range bomber fleet for the Air Force and Navy. This is also the first time that the Pentagon submitted a joint plan for the Air Force and Navy, according to the Air Force Times.
According to the plan, there are no bomber purchases planned over a 10-year period. Instead the Defense Department will spend “considerable sums on modernizing legacy air mobility and long-range strike platforms. The picture will change in the 2020s, when priority will likely shift to buying long-range strike and strategic lift aircraft."
The Pentagon is still only researching requirements for a new generation of long-range bombers. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the 2011 budgets have earmarked almost $2 billion between 2011 and 2015 to develop the bomber. "Although the characteristics of the next long-range strike aircraft have not yet been determined, one option under consideration is a survivable, penetrating aircraft with better stealth capabilities than current aircraft have," according to the plan.
The bomber might also incorporate advanced sensors. The report added that the "range and payload requirements for a successor system are still under investigation."
(Excerpt) Read more at executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu ...
Bump...
I hope I’m still around to see the B-52 turn 100.
When Hussein gets through striping the US of Aerospce jobs and skill sets, those will be the only planes we’ll be able to make.
Yup, lets take a 10 year Aviation holiday and see how easy it is to turn out new planes. Watch, they’ve cancelled the F-22 and its just a matter of time till they cancel (or radically scale back) the JSF (which is a turkey anyway). The $$ and will just isn’t there. We’ll be buying our planes from Russia and China. BTW—I wouldn’t mind seeing us crank out more B-52s. I heard a rumor once that Boeing has the whole production line in mothballs somewhere.
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