폭격기 폭격기 구성 비율을 늘릴 미공군

[위종민]

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/kendall-air-force-ratio-fighters-bombers/

폭격기는 항속거리가 길어 적과 근접한 기지의 필요성이 적어 중국과 상대하기 위해서는 미공군이 더 많은 폭격기가 필요한 상황이죠. 현재는 전투기 vs 폭격기 보유 비율이 15:1 인데, B-21의 양산이 진행되면 이 비율이 더 낮아질 수도 있다고 하네요. 레이더의 현재 양산 계획 수량은 100기이지만 더 늘어날 수도 있다고 합니다. 연산 최대 10~12대가 조달될 수 있다고.. 현재 생산중인 레이더는 5~6대 정도라고 합니다. 

B-52는 사실상 준영구 물품이고, B-1도 아직 수량은 충분한 B-2는 유지하기 매우 어렵다고 하네요. B-21이 양산되면 B-2부터 퇴역시키겠습니다. 

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The B-21 Raider was unveiled to the public at a ceremony Dec. 2, 2022 in Palmdale, Calif. Designed to operate in tomorrow's high-end threat environment, the B-21 will play a critical role in ensuring America's enduring airpower capability. The B-21 will provide survivable, long-range, penetrating strike capabilities to deter aggression and strategic attacks against the United States, allies, and partners. The B-21 is a product of partnerships with industry, the Department of Defense, and Congress. The program is designed to deliver on our enduring commitment to provide flexible strike options for coalition operations that defend us against common threats.(U.S. Air Force photo)

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Kendall: Ratio of Fighters to Bombers May Shift Toward Bombers in the Future

May 2, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force may shift its fighter-to-bomber ratio more toward bombers and longer-range platforms in the future—but not soon, because the B-21 production line is only set up for “modest” production rates, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 2.

“I’m not sure that the future Air Force will look all that much like the one we have today,” Kendall said in response to a question from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who noted that the Air Force’s fighter-to-bomber ratio now hovers around 15-1.

“One of the things that may change is a shift in the balance … between shorter-range tactical air capabilities and longer-range strike capabilities that bombers provide,” Kendall acknowledged.

The Air Force is developing its Agile Combat Employment model, in which it plans to disperse fighters in small groups to a wide variety of operating locations. Bombers, on the other hand, would have the range to prosecute targets without the need for bases close to enemy territory, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said at the December 2022 roll-out of the new B-21 Raider.

At some point in the future, Kendall predicted, the Air Force will begin discussions on adjusting the ratio of fighters to bombers. At the moment, however, the service doesn’t “have many options to make those changes right now,” and in the meantime, “we’re preserving the bomber fleet pretty much as much as we can,” he said.

Much of those preservation efforts are focused on the B-52, which Kendall described as “so robustly-designed that we can keep it pretty much forever.” The Stratofortress is slated to get new engines, radar and other capabilities in the coming years so it can be used “as a bus” for all manner of weaponry.

The B-1, meanwhile, still has “a lot of capacity,” Kendall said, but the B-2 fleet is “harder to maintain.”

“The B-21 is our option, in the near term, to bring in new capability, and we’re just starting to get it into production,” Kendall said. “The current [planned purchase] is 100. I don’t know what it will end up being. It may be larger than that. I would not be surprised by that.”

However, the B-21 is being built on a production line developed for the development program and which “just will continue to be used for production at a relatively modest rate,” Kendall pointed out. The service has said there are currently about five or six B-21s in some stage of production.  

The Air Force has not revealed how rapidly it plans to build and field B-21s, but previous bomber roadmaps—now several years old—have hinted the first 100 B-21s would be bought by about 2023, suggesting a maximum annual rate of 10-12 per year.

“I think if we’re ever going to significantly increase the production, we’d have to go re-look at how we are tooled for manufacturing,” Kendall said, calling that “not a near-term decision.”

However, he agreed with Ernst that building more B-21s than now planned would reduce their unit cost.

“Cost and quantities are always connected, and you do reduce costs by increasing their production rate, definitely,” he said.

Northrop Grumman is building the B-21 at its Palmdale, Calif., facilities, in many of the same spaces that once housed B-2 production. Northrop’s contract covers the first five aircraft—planned for use as test articles, but later convertible to operational assets—on a cost-plus basis, but the first lot of production aircraft will be on a fixed-price basis, with a not-to-exceed unit price of $550 million per copy in base year 2010 dollars, or about $766 million in fiscal 2023 dollars. The Air Force has said the unit cost will come in lower than that.

Kendall briefly pursued the idea of long-range uncrewed aircraft to accompany the B-21 deep into enemy airspace but tabled that notion as unworkable in the near term.

Air Force leaders have said the central, crewed element of the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems will likely come in two variants: a shorter-range model adapted for the European theater, and a longer-range version adapted for the long distances of the Pacific theater.   

[백선호]

B-36을 384대, B-52를 744대, B-47을 2,042대나 만든 1950년대에 폭격기와 전투기의 비율이 요즘과 크게 달랐을 것 같습니다.

[Minowski(김유철)]

핵독점이던 50년대 전략공군과는 목적이 다르긴하지만, 거리와 방공망을 극복해야하는 차원에서 B21은 소요는 크겠습니다만..
미공군은 은근히 호주가 참여해주길 바랬을텐데 떨어져나가서 속이 쓰리겠습니다. 다른 동북아의 동맹국들이 쓰기에는 어렵기도하고, 잘 맞는 물건도 아니니...

[위종민]

개인적으로 호주는 B-21이 필요없다기보다는 미국이 B-21을 해외 판매할 계획이 (아직은) 없으니 현 구상에선 제외한다는 쪽일 것 같습니다. 나중에 해외판매 여부가 확정되면 그 때 다시 검토해볼 듯 합니다.

영국도 B-21같은 장거리 타격전력이 필요할 것 같은데 여긴 여유가 없을 것 같고..

[백선호]

1950년대에 폭격기가 늘어날 때 전투기도 같이 늘었네요.

https://secure.afa.org/Mitchell/reports/MS_TAI_1110.pdf

[위종민]

검색을 해볼까 했는데 찾아주셨네요. ㅎㅎ F-100, F-104같은 전투기들도 네 자리 숫자로 만들어졌으니 비율 자체는 크게 안 바뀌었네요.