Source: No. 10 of the Privy Institute
The highly anticipated Zhuhai Air Show is about to open. According to various signs, foreign media analyzed, the Chinese Air Forces J-35A stealth fighter aircraftIt is about to appear at the air show, which also means that China not only has two active stealth fighters at the same time, but also the only country in the world that produces two different types of stealth fighters at the same time.Facing Chinas pursuit of Chinas fifth -generation fighter field, the US Air Force, which has always rely on equipment advantages as the confidence.
"(NGAD) project is in a dilemma of high costs, and is now being reviewed and has an unknown future.Under this circumstance, the US Air Forces brain cave opened, ready to let the B-21 "raid" invisible bomber act as a "air tank machine" and bear the heavy responsibility of some future air combat.This method that allows bombers to participate in air combat is obviously helplessly emergency ...
The US "Defense News" recently reported that as the US Air Force re-considers its advanced sixth-generation fighter plane plan, the upcoming B-21 stealth bomber may eventually be in the future of the US Air ForceThe blanking plan plays a greater role.It is reported that the U.S. Air Force has been promoting the NGAD project for many years. It consists of a series of different uses of people with driving and driverless fighters. The core is the sixth-generation fighter preparing to replace the F-22 "Raptor" stealth fighter.According to the U.S. Air Forces initial expectations, the NGAD project will officially sign the contract in 2024.But this summer, the US Air Force Minister Frank KFir revealed that the cost of NGAD is too high, and the unit price may be three times the U.S. militarys active F-35 stealth fighter, which is equivalent to 300 million US dollars.Exceeding the tolerance of the Pentagon, the U.S. Air Force suspended the NGAD project and conducted a comprehensive review and evaluation, "in order to find a way to more economically fight against China and other opponents.
The US Air Force Chief of Staff David Alvin is recently asked if the U.S. Air Forces review of the NGAD project will make B-21 get B-21When a more prominent status, we said: "We did not exclude this issue." The US "power" website said that the Nosro Pan Gruman Company touted B-21 as the worlds first sixth-generation aircraft, the largest.The advantage is advanced stealth and data sharing capabilities and open system architecture.In fact, the U.S. Air Force has already imagined that B-21 should take more combat tasks.As early as 2019, Major General Scott Pryce, then the head of the Air Force Air Force Air Force Air Force Air Force, said in an interview with the American Air Force Magazine that if the concept of "NGAD" was limited on a traditional fighter,Then consider what kind of plane needs in a highly competitive environment, it will be "too narrow", and a "air-to-air combat ability" B-21 uses its stealth ability and collaborate with the "a series of systems".Expand defense, maybe this is the "sixth generation aircraft" in a sense.U.S. Defense Secretary of Loury Austen said at the first pre-production B-21 offline ceremony in 2022 that the B-21 has multifunctional characteristics and can handle all tasks from "intelligence collected to combat management".
How will the future B-21 participate in air combat?It is reported that it has a considerable amount of internal bomb compartment effective load capacity and can be used as a large number of air -to -air missile launch platforms, including large -scale "ultra -long -range air -to -air missiles" or a large number of smaller air -to -air missiles.B-21 may also use open space ammunition to perform the "air defense suppression/destruction" task.In addition to direct combat, B-21 may also be used as a more important "air nerve center" to support air-controlling tasks, such as "high combat intensity airspace", relying on stealth advantages to control the previous deployment to control the U.S. Air Force plan in the U.S. Air Force planThe "collaborative combat aircraft" and the "loyalist wingman" formation, and the drone can also pass the data back to the B-21 by air load, and the B-21 can even have some drones to mount and launch and launch.ability.
But then again, the concept of B-21s "air tank machine" is actually not new.In 2016, the US Air Force Minister Dabora Lee James showed the new concept of the Pentagon at a air tactical seminar.It is based on mature models such as B-52 and C-130. It has the ability to launch a network "small diameter bomb" to enemy radars and air defense systems., A large air launch platform as a large number of missiles.At the same time, the "Xunlong" plan that the US Air Force has focused on in recent years, that is, the use of airdrop cruise missile ammunition tray to convert a large number of transport aircraft into a air launch platform for cruise missiles.These plans are essentially using the network data chain to distribute target information for these empty missile missiles. As for whether these missiles are launched from fighter jets, bombers, or transit planes, it is not so important.But on the other hand, the U.S. Air Force is considering the modification of the transport aircraft as a simple bomber after modification, which also proves that the Pentagons urgent demand for the size of the bombers. Therefore, today the limited number of B-21 to undertake some missile launch tasks of the NGAD fighter, and thenIt really means to dismantle the east wall to make up the West Wall.
Material Source Official Media/Network News
