The two potential programs, external
carriage and long bay options
would allow the b1b to carry weapons
externally, significantly increasing its
magazine capacity for munitions. As well as adding larger heavier
munitions such as hypersonic weapons. The purpose of the demonstration was to
show that we're still able to move the
bulkhead from the forward intermediate
bay to the forward location. increasing the intermediate bay capacity
from 180 inches to 269 inches, said Lieutenant Colonel Dominic Ross B-1B program element monitor AFGSC.
Additionally we demonstrated that we can
still carry weapons externally on six of
the eight hard points which increases
our overall carriage capacity. It increases the magazine capacity of
the B-1B. Currently we can carry 24 weapons
internally, now it can be increased to
potentially 40 based on what type of
pylon we would create, ross said.
This gets the B-1 into the
larger weapons the 5000 pounders. It gets it into the hypersonics game as
well. Ross said that the b1b was designed
with eight hard points to carry weapons
as well as a movable bulkhead. For the
select industry partner open house of
sorts, a B-1B was loaded up with a mock-up
hypersonic missile attached to the same
smart bomb capable conventional rotary
launcher now used in the B-52H's weapons
bay.
In addition a joint air-to-surface
standoff missile
also known as the AGM-158 JASM was attached to the same hardpoint that
currently carries the sniper targeting
pod as an example of how the bone's
latent hardpoint attachments can be used
to carry high-end weaponry. The JASM and B-1B combination was the
all-star of the multinational cruise
missile strikes on syria in april of
2018. The small diameter bomb 2 also known as
stormbreaker was also on display at the
event.
If it was integrated on the b1b it could
potentially carry throngs of these
all-weather precision glide bombs at one
time. In some cases
this would allow the bone lay waste to
entire airfields, port facilities, armored formations and
other large target sets with pinpoint
precision on a single pass, while also staying outside the heart of
enemy air defenses.
This demonstration occurred at a very
interesting time in the B-1B service life. during the obama administration there
was an initiative that looked to
potentially convert the type into
arsenal ship of sorts. Loaded with a larger number and larger
variety of precision-guided munitions. Including long-range standoff weaponry.
Before that
the b1r supercruising region bomber
upgrade was also floated. a potential initiative that also would
have seen external store stations be
used operationally as mission
requirements dictate. Neither of these programs came to
fruition, fast forward to today and the B-1B fleet has found itself in an amazingly
poor readiness condition, it has also been the source of headlines
as of late due to systemic issues with
critical life safety systems that have
led to its grounding on multiple
occasions for significantly long periods
of time. The fleet is now being dug out of its
dilapidated state by taking a
much-needed pause in deployments
but its future remains, well up in the
air to a certain degree.
Even though it is slated to serve into
the 2030s at which time the B-21 raider
will replace it in full. Just this week the usaf brass hinted
that it will once again look to retire
certain
legacy, systems in order to free up funds
for new weaponry and other initiatives. Of the bomber force, the B-1B is the only
one at risk of being on the chopping
block. It will be interesting to see what comes
of all this but releasing the B-1B from
the weapons carriage restrictions that
are currently in place, due to the
configuration of its internal weapons
bays may significantly change the
pentagon's rationale for keeping it
around in the short and long term.
Also being able to carry more weapons on
external stations
and integrating smaller but more
numerous types like stormbreaker, may help provide that arsenalship-like
capability that was seen as so
attractive just a few years ago. In addition to jasm the B-1B is capable
of employing its anti-ship cousin. The stealthy long-range anti-ship
missile better known as LRASM.
With more hardpoints it could make the B-1B an even more capable standoff
anti-ship strike asset than it already
is. These features and the ability to
haul around the USAF's new golden child, hypersonic weapons, may just give the
bone the reprieve that it suddenly finds
out it desperately needs.
