In order to maintain its position as the "superpower" in terms of military strength, the U.S Air Force (USAF) has been promoting the equipment modernisation with efforts to research, develop and put into service stealth aircrafts, new-generation air strategic deterrence vehicles, and modern manned and unmanned aircrafts. At the same time, USAF has increasingly equiped long-range precision-strike missiles on many different types of aircraft. This is a new move, drawing the attention of the international community.
Prioritise the development of new-generation strategic deterrence vehicles
USAF believes that long-range strike capability is the most important factor for the US to effectively deal with anti-access and area denial (A2AD) strategies. In the future, precision-guided weapons launching from aircraft will be compact, highly accurate, powerful, and have a destructive capacity approaching that of nuclear weapons. Therefore, it will create a huge advantage to possess a strategic bomber that is capable of breaking through adversaries' air defense systems with both nuclear and conventional strike capability. This explains why up to now, the US has always pursued the goal of developing and equipping new-generation strategic bombers with the ability to penetrate the most modern air defence systems to deliver precision strike anywhere in the world.
Implementing that idea, on December 2, 2022, the US Department of Defence, in collaboration with defence contractor Northrop Grumman, unveiled the new-generation stealth bomber B-21 Raider, with the goal of replacing B-2A multi-mission strategic stealth bomber and B-1B strategic bomber. This is the first new-generation US stealth bomber announced after more than 30 years since the end of the Cold War. At the same time, it is also one of the core contents in the plan to modernise the US military's nuclear deterrent triad from the air, at sea and on land. With the blended wing-body design and modern stealth coating, the B-21 Raider is expected to bypass today's most modern surveillance radars. In addition, aerodynamic designs also improve the B-21 Raider's breakthrough ability and survivability on the battlefield.
The B-21 Raider is required to have highly flexible combat capabilities, to perform many different types of missions, to carry out long-range flight with wide battlefield space coverage and great operational depth. At the same time, it must be capable of carrying many types of existing and future weapons of the USAF, flexibly striking many types of targets and having global attack capacity. This will be the most effective force to realise the US national goal of aerial nuclear threat capability, helping to ensure the US’ necessary involvement and its allies’ security and safety.
In addition to accelerating the operational use of the B-21 Raider, USAF will focus on modernising the existing B-52H, gradually removing from service two types of strategic bombers, the B-1B and B-2A, due to their enormous maintenance cost. The modernisation of the B-52H strategic bomber will focus on applying new technologies that enhance data link, employ smart bombs and ammunition with higher lethality, as well as being more maintainable at squadrons. These new capabilities will expand the role and new missions of the B-52H, ensuring it actively participates in a larger battlefield space in the future. One B-52H is capable of carrying up to 31 tons of weapons of all kinds, including common bombs, cruise missiles and nuclear weapons. The B-52H plays an important role in the US Army's strategic nuclear deterrence because it can deploy tactical nuclear weapons ranging from bombs to missiles.
According to the plan, the USAF will equip at least 100 B-21 Raiders to operate in conjunction with 75 modernised B-52Hs, and the B-21 Raiders will be officially equipped in 2026 or 2027.
Efforts to put into service the 6th generation stealth fighter
Along with prioritising the development of new generation strategic deterrents, USAF is preparing to launch the 6th generation stealth fighter under the Next Generation Air Superiority (NGAD) programme, which is expected to replace the 5th generation stealth fighter F-22 Raptor in 2030. However, the price tag is currently a tough issue, when the 6th generation fighter is expected to be three times higher than the F-35 aircraft, which is already the most expensive aircraft in the world. Accordingly, each 6th generation fighter will cost several hundred million dollars and will include both manned and unmanned versions, depending on the mission for ground attack, air superiority or reconnaissance.
Furthermore, the NGAD Programme aims to create a network of warplanes designed to operate together, rather than focusing solely on a single carrier or weapons technology. Since 2018, USAF has invested more than $2.5 billion in the NGAD programme and this number is likely to increase to at least $9 billion by 2026. New generation fighters under NGAD programme need to be able to operate on a large scale, to be flexible in combat, reconnaissance, and to fight for both air superiority and attack targets at sea and on land. According to military experts, the new long-range fighter model will be able to operate at an altitude of over 21km, having supersonic speed and breakthrough technologies, such as stealth and artificial intelligence.
Enhance the combat role of drones
Currently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are increasingly popular in USAF. UAV’s increasing number and scale mainly comes from the ability to replace manned aircrafts in a series of combat and combat support missions, in order to reduce pilot training costs and casualties, manufacturing and operating costs are also smaller than manned fighter aircraft.
In recent years, the frequency of UAV operations in USAF’s campaigns has increased multiple times. Specifically, during USAF deployment in Afghanistan (2011-2016), the proportion of anti-aircraft vehicles performed by UAVs increased from 05% to 61%, while in the campaign of USAF and allies against the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq from August 2014 to June 2016, MQ-1 Predator drones made more than 9,100 flights, using nearly 3,400 units of high-tech weapons to strike about 1,800 targets.
The effective use of UAVs creates the trend of increasing their number. In the last 15 years, the number of UAVs with long flight times has increased from 10 to 441, and as the result, the budget for these UAV models has also multiplied. Accordingly, USAF was able to perform various missions, especially in conducting day/night patrol flights along 60 itineraries in different areas of the world simultaneously.
In addition to promoting the existing UAVs’ advantages, USAF will be determined to create a breakthrough in the "Loyal Wingman" programme, which is essentially a UAV operating in an aircraft formation of the modern 5th generation fighter F-35 or the improved F-15EX. A typical UAV that USAF plans to put into service is the XQ-58A, intended to perform low-cost tactical tasks, such as intelligence, reconnaissance, target monitoring, striking and electronic warfare. The XQ-58A can operate independently or in a formation, under the command and control of a manned fighter aircraft. According to calculations, the cost of the XQ-58A Valkyrie is between 2 and 3 million USD/unit. This is a reasonable price tag to become a shield for high-value modern fighter aircraft. In fact, the F-35A and the F-15EX both cost from 80 million USD/unit, depending on the variants.
Continue to develop global fast-attack hypersonic weapons
By continuing to pursue the "rapid global strike" programme through the development of hypersonic technology, USAF's primary goal is to contain potential adversaries. Therefore, the US plans to deploy a certain number of hypersonic weapons in the European and Pacific Command. Following the idea "rapid global strike", after engaging decision, hypersonic weapons can attack any targets around the globe within an hour. A quick attack plan with hypersonic weapons at its core can be a choice for the US with a high efficiency/cost ratio and flexible combat application.
USAF has invested in research and development of Lockheed Martin's air-launched rapid response weapon AGM-183. Two recent successful intensive experiments and the first planned glide vehicle test show that USAF has high expectation for this hypersonic air-to-surface missile. Supersonic missiles have minor secondary damage and can be used flexibly in combat, making them suitable for attacking dangerous targets that can quickly change positions. Besides, due to its fast flight speed and high precision strike, even hypersonic weapons without warheads can directly destroy the target with its kinetic energy, suitable for pre-emptive strikes at important targets, such as national leaders, terrorist leaders, strategic nuclear facilities, military command centres and anti-missile air defence systems, etc.
In addition, in the equipment modernisation programme, USAF continues to increase spendings to develop hypersonic attack cruise missiles and put them into service from 2027 or 2028. Additional missile equipment air-to-surface cruise beyond the range of anti-aircraft fire (JASSM), long-range anti-ship cruise missile (LRASM) and modern air-to-air missile (JATM). In particular, the JATM missile is considered USAF's biggest step forward in developing an air-to-air missile with a longer range and higher accuracy than the Chinese PL-15 missile of the same type.
It can be said that USAF has strong ambition to modernise its equipment, as it wants to become the world’s first air force to put the new-generation strategic bombers and the 6th-generation stealth fighter into combat. At the same time, USAF is also determined to develop UAVs operating in the formation of manned fighters. This could create an arms race between major countries as Russia and China have just begun to equip 5th generation fighter aircraft, and currently employing strategic bombers equivalent to the US’ B-1B aircraft.
Senior Colonel DANG DONG TIEN, General Department of Technology