Breaking Silence About the B-3

Strategy Page ^ | 3/13/08 | Jim Dunnigan

[Renfield]

March 10, 2008: Stung by rumors that they were not serious about developing a new heavy bomber, the U.S. Air Force announced that it was developing such an aircraft, that it would be in service by 2018, and would be able to operate with, or without, a crew. The implication was that the design of the new bomber was already quite advanced, and that it was, like the B-2, being handled as a "black project" (all work done in secrecy, until ready for production.)

The new bomber would be similar to the current B-2 in many ways. That is, it would be stealthy, have a crew of only two, and be capable of staying in the air for over 24 hours at a time. The "B-3" would probably also be capable of super-cruise (travelling long distances at very high speeds), and would definitely have a full array of the latest sensors and communications capabilities. The biggest potential problem is cost. The B-2 bombers were so expensive that only 21 were built. One recently crashed. Adding in the development expenses, each B-2 cost about two billion dollars. If the B-3 costs a lot more, the air force will have a hard time selling it to Congress. This would be the case even if the air force came up with a design that amounted to a "semi-space" ship, that travelled at hypersonic speeds (enabling it to reach any point on the planet in a few hours). Price has definitely become a factor, and that may be why the air force has been reluctant to release any details on the next generation heavy bomber.

[KarlInOhio]

Head out to Dayton Ohio and Wright-Patterson AFB US Air Force Museum and actually touch both. The other (only two built) Valkyrie and a (still leaking fuel), SR-71. Not to mention a Raptor.

When the SR-71 came in for its final flight, I worked very near the USAF Museum. The whole office walked across the street and stood on a hill overlooking the runway to watch the landing. The museum runway was shorter than normally allowed, so the weather had to be perfect and it was cancelled a few times before takeoff until they had a day with great weather.

[Billthedrill]

There is no B-3. There is no Aurora. We retired the SR-71 and the F-117 with nothing to follow. Go back to sleep now. Nothing to see here. ;-)

[exit82]

tlb—great info,thanks for the link.

[ThomasThomas]

I ate lunch under a xb-70 at the Nation museum of the Air force in Dayton Ohio.

[A.A. Cunningham]

We sent F-117s,

Along with many EA-6Bs and EF-111s providing SEAD so those golf balls wouldn't be detected.

[July 4th]

What’s that beast? A Concord derivative bomber?

No, it predated the Concorde. As an aviation buff once told me, that plane had one purpose: make it clear that the US meant business when the thing took off. Apparently, its signature (radar, infrared) was so massive, that there would be no mistaking that we were pissed and that we were on the way.

[Erasmus]

Unfortunately, supersonic and stealth don’t go well together.

[Erasmus]

Our neighbor, the late Emil Pipersky, helped design that and the SST at North American.

Now, there's the perfect name for a Russian light aircraft company!

[Erasmus]

Awesome trip...don’t go in May. Those crazy Ham radio operators take over the town.

May 16-18 this year. The main problem being that you can't find a hotel room within abut 30 miles.

[Smokin' Joe]

Why not have a supersonic stealth unmanned heavy bomber aircraft?

Like an ICBM?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Or a bunch of cruise missiles.

[endthematrix]

"If you really want to let a country know that we're coming... "

Leave that to the President. Since the USA's job of late is just enforcing UN resolutions, we announce our plans ahead of time.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

For those who wonder what's wrong with the paint on the XB-70 the answer is simple. It burned off on an earlier flight.

The B-58 was the fastest plane we had at the time. It held many world speed records until the SR-71 came along. The records were set by pilot Henry John Deutschendorf Sr. Many will recognize his son, Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. who sang under the name John Denver.

[Sarajevo]

Another bomber? We barely use the B-1’s and B-2’s. It seems that we always end up using the BUFF.

[johnny7]

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I had no idea about the father / son connection! Too bad son wasn’t as good a pilot as dad.

[mad_as_he$$]

Yup. Slightly smaller than the KC-135.

[halfright]

Saw some guys wearing antennas on their hats....knew I was in wrong part of town...Wright-Pat is east of town :)

[Eye of Unk]

The way I see it its because of the Islamic problem the rest of mankind has had its technology stunted, all the money spent killing terrorists could have gone to better things.

Maybe someone will develop a surefire way to deal with this problem or the whole planet is going back to the stone age.

[Little Ray]

There will be no “B-3.” There will be a stealthy, long-range UCAV that carries either a small load of small diameter PGMs or a single, large PGM. It will cruise in the high-subsonic range for very long ranges and be capable aerial refueling. It will have good sensors to allow it transmit targeting information back to its operator, but it will be perfectly capable of carrying out an attack on its own.
If the designers are smart, it will be able to operate off of carriers or be launched from subs as well as from airfields.