USAF Enhancing Capabilities Of B-2

As the debate continues within the US Department of Defense (DoD) on whether to procure additional Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, the US Air Force (USAF) is undertaking a series of initiatives to improve the combat capabilities of its existing 21-aircraft B-2A Block 30 fleet.

One area of focus is to improve the ability to maintain the aircraft's low-observability (LO) qualities to radar. The extended time it currently takes maintenance personnel to restore the bomber's LO characteristics after servicing is the principle reason the B-2 suffers from mission-capable rates below the 50% standard established by the service's Air Combat Command.

Chief among the LO improvements is the Advanced High Frequency Material (AHFM) programme designed to incorporate magnetic radar-absorbing material on the aircraft's high-demand access panels like the crew-entry door.

USAF Col Janet Wolfenbarger, B-2 Programme Manager, said the AHFM programme will replace approximately 60% of the currently used LO tape with fasteners and other more user-friendly and effective materials. These new materials will significantly reduce the time and labour required to restore the LO qualities during routine maintenance activities, thus improving the aircraft's mission-capable rate, say USAF and industry officials.

Paul Marchisotto, Northrop Grumman's Vice President and B-2 Program Manager, said the goal of the AHFM initiative is for maintenance personnel to be able to service the B-2 in the same manner in which they would work on any other aircraft. "In other words," he says, "the fact that it is an LO airplane becomes transparent" to them. Before the AHFM improvements, some maintenance activities could take more than 30 hours because of the cure times needed for restoring the LO qualities with tape and other less-sophisticated materials, says Marchisotto. "Once we put AHFM on all of the airplanes," these same activities, he told Jane's Defence Weekly, "will take a matter of minutes."

Production of the materials is under way, says Marchisotto. The USAF says AHFM flight testing has been completed and has verified the maintainability expectations. The materials will then be installed during each aircraft's programmed depot maintenance to minimise disruption and lack of availability.

A second area of modifications is to integrate the B-2A with several new munitions like the precision-guided 500lb (227kg) Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and 5,000lb Enhanced GBU-28, which is designed to attack hardened and deeply buried targets. Munitions like the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Munition and Small Diameter Bomb are also planned for use with the B-2.

The B-2 has already been integrated with the 2,000lb JDAM, of which it can carry sixteen and integration with the 500lb variant is expected by late 2004. The aircraft will be able to carry 80 500lb JDAMs, each of which will be independently targetable.

"One B-2 in one pass could take out 80 separate targets with very precise weapons employment," says Marchisotto.

The EGBU-28 will replace the GBU-37, a 4,700lb 'bunker buster' that the USAF designed specifically to be carried on the B-2. The bomber will carry 8 EGBU-28s and work is under way to integrate the two systems. Indeed, the B-2 has already reportedly carried out attacks using the EGBU-28 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom against targets in Afghanistan. In September, the USAF awarded Raytheon a contract to carry out the integration.

The USAF is also considering a Mixed Conventional Loads Pattern Management computer software enhancement that would give the B-2 the capability to employ up to 16 precision-guided munitions, of up to four different types, against independent targets on the same bombing pass. Currently the bomber is limited to carrying the same weapons release carriage system, either a rotary launcher or bomb rack, and the same munition in both of its weapons bays for a mission.

Marchisotto says that the B-2's use during Operation Allied Force in 1999 showed it could have useful conventional roles "if it could have a few large weapons in one bay and a lot of small weapons in another bay". The USAF is considering funding this upgrade in its Fiscal Year 2004 budget request.

The third major area of modifications under way comprises connectivity upgrades like Link 16 and satellite communications (SATCOM) so the B-2 can operate in an integrated fashion with the rest of the force structure. This connectivity was not required of the platform when its role was primarily as a strategic nuclear bomber and not a conventional munitions platform.

The Ultra-High Frequency and Extremely High Frequency SATCOM upgrades, along with Link 16/Center Instrument Display/In-Flight Replanner initiative, will give the bomber improved tactical battlefield situational awareness for enhanced survivability and flexible targeting, according to the USAF.

Knowledgeable sources say the DoD leadership favours procuring up to 10 additional B-2s, despite the preference of Air Force Secretary James Roche for a new medium bomber. Northrop Grumman has offered the B-2C model, which is optimised for a conventional role. However, even if no additional B-2s are procured, Marchisotto says these planned enhancements, which he referred to as a Block 40 upgrade, could be performed as part of a midlife, avionics programme for the existing fleet.

These improvements would give the existing aircraft the capability to prosecute moving targets, which he says, is not in the USAF's current plan for the B-2.

"We could wind up with tremendously increased capability on that aeroplane, just by replacing the current processors with commercial-off-the-shelf products ... some new displays and an updated radar," he says. "We could wind up using the radar to define moving targets - like an armoured column - and apply those 80 precision munitions [500lb JDAMs] on 80 of those vehicles independently."

"Our current capability against those types of targets is to cut the road. We lay a carpet of weapons out there and we don't actually destroy the vehicles."

The B-2 is a $2 billion/per copy piece of junk. The Air Force has repeatedly stated they don't want any more of these non-deployable budget hogs. The money would be better spent on other weapons systems.

Not to mention its vulnerability in wet weather, its delaminating problems.

There is something wrong with an aircrat that has to fly back to the Midwest after every mission. Before building any more, we should figure out how to turn these missions around much more quickly and at forward bases. Between the flight time and the maintenance, a B-2 can mount fewer than two strikes per week.

It has it's problems, but keep in mind that when they quote the price of the B2 they are quoting the life-time cost of the airframe and it's upgrades.

Back when the press was crying about the cost they sometimes would compare the life-time cost of a B2 against the procurment cose of say, the B1. Apples and Oranges....

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