2015-10-28 By Robbin Laird
It was announced yesterday that Northrop Grumman won the initial new bomber contract.
It should be noted that this is the second major contract Northrop Grumman has won against Boeing.
The first was the tanker contract where they were partnered with Airbus to deliver a next generation tanker.
Less noticed in the press coverage was the fact that Northrop has put the capability together to do so for some time.
Although the name of the bomber is not yet selected, we will refer to it as the B-3, notably because Northrop built its predecessor, the B-2.
First, they are a major player in both the F-22 and the F-35. In the case of the F-35, they build major elements of the fused combat systems of the F-35 as well having built a state of the art manufacturing facility to build the fuselage for the F-35.
In fact, this facility received recognition as a major manufacturing facility in 2013.
F-35 Integrated Assembly Line (IAL) was named “Assembly Plant of the Year” by Assembly Magazine in recognition for the facility’s world-class processes to reduce costs, increase productivity and improve quality. Northrop Grumman is the first aerospace company to receive this award.
Inspired by automation systems used by automakers, the IAL was designed and developed by Northrop Grumman, working with Detroit-based KUKA Systems Corporation’s Aerospace Division, a commercial automation integrator. The IAL is central to producing the F-35’s center fuselage as well as driving new levels of efficiency into the manufacturing process, reducing process times, increasing precision and quality, and reducing production costs.
“Northrop Grumman has been a leader in designing, developing, and applying automated systems to the complex task of assembling modern fighter aircraft,” said Brian Chappel, vice president of the F-35 program for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. “The IAL is one example, where Northrop Grumman maximizes robotics and automation, providing additional capacity and assembly capability while meeting engineering tolerances that are not easily achieved using manual methods.”
And on October 4, 2015, the first center fuselage for Japan was finished and prepared for delivery.
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has completed – on budget and on schedule – the center fuselage for the first F-35 Lightning II aircraft to be assembled in Japan’s F-35 Final Assembly and Checkout (FACO) facility in Nagoya, Japan. The center fuselage, designated AX-5, will be integrated into an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant.
Second, Tom Vice, the head of Northrop Grumman Aerospace systems has led an effort at significant technological innovation, design and manufacturing upgrades in the sector that will lead the B-3 program, such as the aircraft integration centers of excellence in Palmdale, California and Melbourne, Florida.
Northrop Grumman announced the creation of several centers of excellence throughout the country last year, to improve its strategic alignment with its customers’ needs for increasingly innovative and affordable products, services and solutions.
A leader in aviation integration and manufacturing, the St. Augustine facility has been operational since 1980. It is the home of E-2D Advanced Hawkeye production and employees have also performed work on the EA-6B Prowler, C-2A Greyhound, A-6 Intruder, F-14 Tomcat, F-5 Tiger and E-2C Hawkeye aircraft. Key aircraft manufacturing processes are managed by a team of more than 1,000 employees. With the site’s designation as a center of excellence, the workforce will grow by an additional 400 employees during the next three years.
Third, the company recently announced a major restructuring, one which will clearly be important in building the B-3. The key aspect of the restructuring is bringing the electronic and information systems sectors into an integrated mission systems sector. And the B-3 is obviously a perfect platform to be shaped with an integrated mission systems approach at the center of the effort.
And that mission systems approach is clearly part of the shift to a multi-tasking fifth generation combat approach and not a legacy hub-and-spoke directed air combat force, characterized by specialized or multi-mission aircraft.
On October 15, 2015, Northrop announced its restructuring approach.
Northrop has a big role in the Lockheed-led F-35 fighter, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite systems, and plans to shrink to three from four business units, combining parts of existing operations into a single mission systems platform. Enlarged aerospace and technical services units complete the lineup, which Northrop said would help it enhance innovation.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/northrop-grumman-realigns-sectors-restores-coo-post-1444860029
In a comprehensive look at the way ahead for the USAF with the building of a new “bomber,” Lt. General (retired) Deptula underscored its role within combat transformation.
What we previously labeled as “bombers” can play dramatically broader roles than they ever did in the past. To capture this potential, however, requires innovative thought and shedding anachronistic concepts that aircraft can only perform singular functions and missions.
The era of specialized aircraft is over, as technology has moved on and resource constraints have grown. The information age allows new aircraft to become much more than just “bombers” or “fighters” but actually sensor-shooter aircraft.
When integrated with other system “nodes” in every domain—air, space, land, and sea—they will have the capability to create a “combat cloud,” a manifestation of a self-forming, self-healing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR)-strike-maneuver-sustainment complex.
As we wrote earlier, the B-3 is not a replacement bomber but rather is part of the revolution in air combat affairs.
In a piece first published in May 2015, the main thrust of the context and impact of a B-3 was the focus of attention.
The bomber has a long and distinguished history in first the Army Air Corps and then the US Air Force.
When the B-17 was born, it was a controversial aircraft, which proved its worth when Nazi Germany controlled a continent and only the B-17 fleet could deliver strikes inside Nazi-controlled territory, given the bomber’s range and payload.
Unfortunately, there was significant conflict before the war when fighter pilots and bomber advocates argued for the primacy of the one over the other — with the result being B-17s flying unescorted into Nazi territory and facing significant attrition.
Bombers and fighters are interactive capabilities, then and now.
With the addition of the B-29, a new tool set was added as well to Pacific operations, which become the harbinger of things to come in the Cold War, as the B-52 entered the fleet.
The bomber started as a “strategic” asset in terms of being a central part of the nuclear triad and then in terms of the amount of ordinance it could deliver in conventional operations.
That role became clear in the Vietnam War.
Flash forward to 2015, and the B-52 is still around having been joined by the B-1 and the B-2; all of which are playing roles unimagined at the time the B-52 was introduced. Now bombers can perform a wide variety of tactical missions, including close air support, given the revolution in precision-guided munitions and the sensors that can be used to guide those weapons to their targets.
There has been an inversion of the strategic and tactical with the evolution of airpower, whereby small teams of aircraft can deliver strategic effects while conducting “tactical” missions.
Any new bomber will be born in a period where the tactical and strategic are being redefined.
Although the new bomber will build upon the technology enhancements made over the years to the B-2, the B-3 will be no more a successor to the B-2 than the Osprey was a replacement for the CH-46. As Lt. Col. Berke of the USMC – the only F-22 and F-35 operational pilot and the first F-35B squadron commander — has put it: “The Osprey is the chronological successor to the CH-46 but that is about it. It compares in no other way.”
Clearly, the B-3 has the possibility of being defined as a blend of advanced airframe approaches and the proven, modern avionics and sensors that are being integrated on the F-35.
The new bomber therefore “replaces” the B-2 in the sense that the Osprey replaces the Ch-46. And a Lt. Col.
In the USAF 15 years from now might make the same comment which Berke made about the Osprey with regard to the B-3.
The B-3 will enter a fleet in the midst of a revolution in air combat affairs.
This revolution is seeing sea and air operations inextricably intertwined with air power, so much so that airpower is the ubiquitous enabler for 21st century combat operations.
And, with the introduction of the F-35 global fleet, a re-norming of airpower is underway y and an offensive-defensive enterprise is being created for the US and its allies to prevail against the wide-ranging global threats in the 21st century strategic environment.
The strategic thrust of integrating modern systems is to create a grid that can operate in an area as a seamless whole, able to strike or defend simultaneously.
This is enabled by the evolution of C5ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), and it is why Secretary Wynne has underscored for more than a decade that fifth generation aircraft are not merely replacements for existing tactical systems but an entirely new approach to integrating defense and offense.
By shaping a C5ISR system inextricably intertwined with platforms and assets, which can honeycomb an area of operation, an attack and defense enterprise can operate to deter aggressors and adversaries or to conduct successful military operations.
Rather than looking solely at the organic capability of the B-3, the synergy the B-3 brings to the battlespace is the key discriminator in how it is built, deployed and used.
For example, forward-deployed fifth generation aircraft and missile defense systems can find targets for the weapons loads on the B-3, which in turn can function as the battle manager for an integrated missile defense, fifth generation, attack and defense enterprise. This means that that the sensors, the C2 and information management capabilities of the bomber are a crucial element of its capability.
At the heart of shaping an offensive-defensive enterprise is what one might call the S3Revolution.
Sensors, stealth and speed enable the air combat enterprise to find, kill and respond effectively to the numerous adversarial threats global powers and pop up forces can present to the US and its allies.
A redesign of forces is underway and modular capabilities provide for scalable forces which can provide both presence and reach-back and forces can be tailored to match the threat. As the central force in the air combat enterprise, the B3 can enable the United States tohave the upper hand with the Chinese in a 21st-century strategic engagement.
The bomber as the centerpiece of the air enterprise provides a new kind of presence, linked with highly interoperable, Lego-like blocks able to work with allies that allow for scalable forces with reach-back to U.S. capabilities in the littoral and the homeland. The bottom line: U.S. forces need to be highly connected and interoperable with its allies. The bomber provides a core reach-back capability enabling the entire engagement force.
The B-3 will be born in a period of the offensive-defensive enterprise, the S-cubed revolution and the redesign of forces around modularity scalability and reach-back.
It is not simply going to provide more ordnance over greater distance to do strategic missions; it is about reinforcing and enabling greater capabilities for the combat air force undergoing a revolution in air combat affairs.
The platform needs to be built with the revolution in air combat affairs in mind.
Range and payload will be important elements of the basic platform, as will leveraging new concepts of stealth to provide low observability.
But that is simply a foundation to what the B-3 is all about.
First, it needs to be capable of drawing upon the sensor rich environment being delivered by the global F-35 fleet, unmanned systems and various ISR assets.
Second, it needs to have a C2 system whereby it can obtain and provide tailored information to the warfighter engage in a particular mission set.
Third, with the scalable force it will need to be able to provide battle management capabilities for more forward deployed or shorter-range assets.
Fourth, the weapons revolution is accelerating, and over time, different weapons could well be placed on different platforms, so that the B-3 will need to able to not simply to manage the weapons it has onboard organically, but to be able to operate in a sensor-enabled strike environment, where it is a key but not necessary the lead or even most important asset.
Fifth, with the coming of the second nuclear age, not only will the B-3 become a nuclear delivery vehicle but a deterrent asset able to work with the combat air force to deliver timely and effective strikes against nuclear powers like North Korea BEFORE they can use their missiles and weapons against US and allied targets.
In other words, the B-3 is part of the re-norming of airpower, a key enabler of the forward deployed F-35 global enterprise, a key element in both living off and providing targeted information, and key user and provider of sensor enabled weapons, and a key deterrent weapon against second nuclear age powers.
This has little to do with the B-17, somewhat more like the B-52 but not really about building a powerful organic strategic asset like the B-2.
It is about being a highly effective enabler of more effective longer-range engagement operations, which can effectively tap into joint or coalition airpower.
It is not simply about being a powerful thing in itself (a bomber), but providing significant enhancement of the contextual capabilities of 21st century airpower.
Editor’s Note: This piece was first published on Breaking Defense:
http://breakingdefense.com/2015/05/what-the-b-3-bomber-should-be/