A B-21 Raider conducts flight tests, which includes ground testing, taxiing, and flying operations, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. (Air Force photo)
WASHINGTON — Amid a high tempo of operations and rising threats throughout the globe, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) suggested officials should take another look at a years-old, long-term target for fielding a fleet of 220 bombers.
“We have 141 bombers in the inventory between the B-1, the B-2 and the B-52,” Air Force Gen. Thomas Bussiere said during a discussion hosted by the Mitchell Institute on Thursday. “The demand signal for the bombers is greater than any time I’ve seen in my career, across the fabric of every geographic combatant command.”
The Air Force plans to retire the B-1 and B-2 as the new B-21 Raider comes online, and extend the life of the B-52 via a fleetwide overhaul. The service has stated it will buy at least 100 B-21s, which would be complemented by the updated fleet of 76 newly-designated B-52Js.
According to Bussiere, previous Air Force officials have stated that once the long-range strike force drops to a two-bomber fleet, the service should aim for an inventory of 220 bombers. However, the general then said officials should consider reassessing that number, especially given the high demand for the bomber fleet from places like Europe to the Middle East.
“That data, and that fleet size probably needs to be reevaluated based on the world as we see it today,” Bussiere said.
Though he did not recommend a specific number for the fleet or explicitly call to increase it, Bussiere said in a statement to Breaking Defense that “[a] bomber force of 220 has been a number suggested in the public sphere for a while. The number we field will be guided by the fact that no other U.S. ally or partner has an active bomber force, and our bombers provide the backbone of our military’s flexible global strike capability, which is also the foundation of our extended deterrence umbrella for our allies and partners.
“The number of bombers in the fleet will be informed by the threat, the National Defense Strategy, the budget, deployment/employment demand signals, and most importantly decisions by policy makers,” he continued. “We will get at least 100 B-21s, modernize the B-52J and retire B-2s and B-1s as new platforms come online and are Fully Operationally Capable. We must have the number required to provide both strategic and conventional deterrence, and if our deterrence fails, we must have the number required to deliver a decisive response.”
Upping the bomber force would likely entail buying more B-21s beyond the service’s minimum target of 100. However, officials this year testified that a decision to increase the Raider’s procurement won’t be needed for another decade, at which point an alternative could be available.
The Air Force has limited resources to increase the Raider buy, though lawmakers, including incoming Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), have called for doubling the bomber’s procurement. And when asked, Air Force officials are hardly coy about wanting more, including by speeding up its current production rate so that more bombers are built in the short term.
“I think most national security professionals would look at the B-21 and the current production schedule and go, ‘We might want to consider evaluating whether or not we can accelerate that based on the age of the B-2 and the B-1 fleet.’ That’s a prudent question in light of the threats that are out there and the demand signals for bombers,” Bussiere said.
“Normally, the answer is, ‘who would not want more long-range strike platforms?’” he added. “And it really gets down to the fundamentals of the budget. It’s a service budget issue, it’s a department budget issue. It’s a national budget issue. So I’m a firm believer that if the nation decides they need something, they’ll invest in it and invest in it in an agile way to make something happen.”
Northrop builds the bomber at its Palmdale, Calif., production facility. Buessiere said that if officials decide to ramp up production of the bomber, “there’s some capability growth within the current complex.” Ultimately deferring to acquisition professionals, the general added that if the Raider’s production was supercharged in the near term, “more than likely, it would require opening up another production complex if the nation decides to do that.”
