DOD Budget FY11 - Long Range Strike Funding

[bobbymike]

From Defensenews.com

The budget overview also reveals DoD is ready to put new money toward an on-again, off-again effort to develop and field a new long-range bomber: "Later in this [2011-2015] time frame, funds are available to begin developing a new bomber and cruise missile."

From 2011 to 2015, the administration will seek $4 billion that it wants to put toward "a portfolio of initiatives to improve long-range strike capabilities." Part of the $4 billion would go for maintaining "the bomber industrial base" while the Pentagon studies what kind of bomber will be "appropriate for future decades." The long-range strike portion of the request also would fund development of a Prompt Global Strike system, as well as efforts to upgrade B-2 and B-52 bomber aircraft, according to the DoD summary.
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So three major initiatives to keep our eyes open for:
1) New bomber, let's hope it goes ahead this time
2) New cruise missile, after ACM retirement will this be nuclear, conventional, hypersonic?
3) Prompt global strike missile, conventional Trident, conventional ICBM, boost glide vehicle?

 

[Ian33]

Northrop didn't get the Next Generation Bomber? I thought they got that souped up X-47B look alike in the works?

 

[bobbymike]

There has been a lot of talk about Northrop getting $2 billion in black budget funding to build a NGB prototype. Air Force sources have denied this.....take that statement for what it is worth.

 

[Ian33]

Interesting, thank you.

RATTLRS vanished, NGB vanished, Blackswift vanished... anything else left behind?

 

[bobbymike]

From the Air Force Association Daily Report

Beyond ALCM: The Air Force, together with the Navy, intends to pursue a new cruise missile design starting in Fiscal 2011 that has "standoff capability critical to nuclear deterrence," according to USAF budget officials. It is a potential replacement to the aging nuclear-tipped Air Launched Cruise Missile, which has been operational since 1982 and is carried on B-52H bombers. The officials said the Fiscal 2011 budget proposal earmarks $3.3 million toward this effort, which is meant to address concerns over ALCM survivability. According to one budget document, the Air Force is conducting an analysis of alternatives "for the future of long-range strategic standoff vehicles" in Fiscal 2010, with its completion set for Fiscal 2011. The Air Force has also been exploring an ALCM service life extension to keep the missile viable out to 2030 since some if its components "cannot be sustained beyond the initial service life," states the document.