The next bomber in the US Air Force inventory should be stealthy and subsonic. It should travel 2,000-nautical miles to its target and have enough fuel on board to get home. It should carry at least 28 500-pound bombs. And (surprise!) there should be a human pilot on board.
These are the conclusions of the air force's recently completed analysis of alternatives for a next-generation bomber to be fielded around 2018.
This is supposed to be a new thing, of course, but those specifications seem strangely familiar.
Anyone remember the A-12 Avenger II? It, too, was a stealthy, subsonic, manned aircraft that blurred the boundary between an attack aircraft and a bomber.
Dick Cheney cancelled the A-12 program on 7 January 1991, just as the bombs started to fall on Baghdad during Operation Desert Storm.
True, the A-12 was conceived as a carrier-based land attack aircraft, but it wasn't entirely a navy bird. According to our dog-eared copy of Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1991-92, a "USAF A-12" had been proposed as a replacement for the F-111.
The F-111 was designed to carry 24 500-pound bombs and travel 1,800 miles, and it's not unfair to think the proposed USAF variant of the super-secret A-12 would have been very similar in capability.
So, congratulations, taxpayers: Watch the air force spend billions of dollars over the next decade for an aircraft that General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas very nearly delivered to the navy and the air force 15 years ago.
It is right there in the requirements, they want the thing to go 2,000 nautical miles then back 2000 with reserve fuel. I have seen many listings for the range of the A-12 and none were the same...but none ever had it listed anywhere near 4000 miles. Also, the A-12 was 30% overweight...bringing the payload and the range down with it. Should they have fixed it, yep! God knows how I hate to see F-18s on deck and now we will see ever more. Soon, the only planes on a carrier will be the damn F-18...
The A-12 was a lemon and because was, it sucked the life out of the Navy. I think even the USAF would learn from them on this one.
~Herk
Posted by: HerkEng | May 03, 2007 at 03:34 PM
See - the thing was as it entered the endangered species zone, the A-12 was being pawned off as the answer for all the fixed wing communites on the carrier. Only the COD seemed immune (and you hould have seen some of the pipe dreams for that...) I well remember be briefed on the "AEW" variant (if you could call it that) and at the end, looking at the senior officer who had briefed me and saying YHTBSM and wondering aloud at the recreational drug use of the panel that dreamed that one up...
- SJS
Posted by: Steeljaw Scribe | May 04, 2007 at 08:46 AM
...and now the F-18 is the best plane for the job? Without the E-2c (sorry, D) the F-18 would be lonely
Posted by: HerkEng | May 10, 2007 at 09:48 AM