Crs Report for Congress - The Next Generation Bomber: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress: Rl34406 (Paperback)

The Air Force is in the initial stages of formalizing a new bomber aircraft acquisition program. This program, in accordance with Department of Defense (DOD) and congressional mandates, is to produce a new long-range strike aircraft to be operational by 2018. Air Force plans for acquiring a new bomber aircraft have been accelerated by about 20 years from earlier projections because of a combination of the Air Force's desire to retire a portion of its B-52 fleet and DOD's perception of a developing "bomber capability gap." Defense analysts have estimated that it will cost between $8 billion and $10 billion to develop a new bomber using current or "soon-to-mature" technologies. The Air Force expects the 2018 bomber to serve as an "interim fix" to bridge a bomber capability gap, allow it to retire a portion of the current bomber fleet, and position itself for development of a follow-on bomber with more advanced technologies such as hypersonic (faster than Mach 5) drive engines. While the Air Force has yet to release a formal bomber Request for Proposal, defense and industry experts expect the 2018 bomber program to call for the acquisition of around 100 stealthy bomber aircraft capable of high-subsonic flight ...