Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
4/24/2015
Congress would increase oversight of the Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRSB) program if legislation reported to the full House Armed Services Committee this week makes its way into the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, and is approved afterward. The last section of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower & Projection Forces markup of the FY 2016 NDAA states that the planned investment amount and “strategic importance” of acquiring a new bomber factored into the subcommittee’s decision to task the U.S. Comptroller General to review the bomber acquisition program and brief HASC about the study’s findings by March 1. The report would include a comparison of LRSB’s technology maturity with other Air Force acquisition programs at parallel points of acquisition cycles. “This brief should also include an examination of the Air Force’s: (1) overall acquisition strategy; (2) technology, design, and production readiness; (3) development, testing, and fielding progress; (4) cost and schedule implications; and (5) technical performance,” the mark states.
AF to Move LRSB from ACC to AFGSC
HASC released the markup April 22, two days after the Air Force announced plans to move LRSB from Air Combat Command (ACC) to Global Strike Command. The service moved LRSB and the B-1 under AFGSC to synergize the bomber force, putting all of those aircraft under one command. “The professional development, the training, the command and control, total force integration, the acquisition, sustainment, can all be improved by putting all bombers under one command,” AFGSC Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson said during a speech this week. The last time all bombers were grouped under one Major Command (MAJCOM) was under ACC in 2009, when AFGSC stood up. The last time all bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles existed under one major command was under ACC from 1992 to 1993, after being under Strategic Air Command from 1946-1992.
While 63 current aircraft and about 7,000 people will shift commands, Wilson said in a statement that the Air Force expects the realignment to be “imperceptible” to most airmen at Dyess AFB in Texas, and Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, both of which house B-1s. “With a single command responsible for the Air Force’s entire long range strike fleet, the Airmen in AFGSC will benefit from better coordination and increased sharing of expertise across the five bomber wings,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said in a statement. “Consolidating all conventional and nuclear capable bombers within the same command allows the Air Force to streamline the global strike and strategic deterrence missions, and create a lasting positive impact for the Air Force’s global strike capabilities.” During an April 22 breakfast speech in Washington, Welsh said the Schlesinger Report on the Nuclear Enterprise released in 2008 included the bomber consolidation as a secondary recommendation, adding that the service held off on the shift to first address other priorities. “I think this just makes common sense,” Welsh said about the realignment. “We’re trying to make that the first standard we apply wherever we can.”
LRSB Could Be Used to Offset Surface-to-Air Systems, including Russia’s
LRSB would factor into any U.S. calculus of offsetting the potential threat of long-range surface-to-air missile systems, such as Russia’s S-300, Welsh said. The U.S. is concerned about 10 different surface-to-air systems right now, and Welsh said 25 countries will have such technology by 2025, making it increasingly difficult to field U.S. land forces, to do intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and for carrier battle groups to come close to shore. The bomber is “immensely important” in this type of scenario, Welsh said. “You have to be able to operate in that environment successfully, and the legacy stuff we have can’t do it,” he said. The bomber will help the “ability to penetrate that kind of integrated system and help destroy it. It brings volume with fire over time. It creates sortie rates in a major theater war that you need to have to be successful.”
Industry Weighs In
During Boeing’s First Quarter FY 2015 earnings conference call this week, CEO Jim McNerney named LRSB as one of three “key development programs” that exemplified solid government support for its Defense, Space and Security division during the period, noting President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request exceeds the FY 2015 appropriated amount for the bomber. Obama requested $1.2 billion for the LRSB for FY 2016, exceeding the current funded amount of $913.7 million. During the call, Boeing CFO Greg Smith said LRSB could help offset declines caused by declining production of F-15s and F-18s. Boeing faces the strong possibility of ending production for those fighter jets by the end of the decade, though Smith said the programs could have more “legs” than anticipated. A Boeing-Lockheed Martin team is competing against Northrop Grumman for the LRSB contract, expected to be awarded sometime this summer. The Air Force plans to procure 80 to 100 of the planes at a cost of $550 million apiece.
Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President and CFO Bruce Tanner said during his company’s earnings call this week that his company is back-heavy on orders for its Information Systems & Global Solutions segment, with 65 percent of FY 2016 orders expected between July and December. Tanner said LRSB and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle are the “big strategic items” Lockheed is looking at from a competitive perspective this year.
