By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Delivering ammunition, medical supplies and weapons in hostile areas, transporting forces across hundreds of miles to reinforce war operations and air dropping time-critical cargo for soldiers in a front-line fight.….are all critical combat missions completed by Cargo aircraft. The success of these aircraft, such as the propeller-driven C-130 or C-17 Globemaster depend upon speed, fuel efficiency and payload capacity, attributes now arguably entering a paradigm-changing new era with the arrival of Blended-Wing-Body aircraft engineering.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced that the service has awarded a Blended-Wing-Body prototype contract to a private firm called JetZero, an innovative technology firm involved in cutting edge Blended-Wing-Body aircraft. A full prototype is expected by 2027
“Blended wing body aircraft have the potential to significantly reduce fuel demand and increase global reach,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in a service report. Kendall went on to explain that BWB designs will enable longer reach and mission dwell time, as a more fuel-efficient, low-drag, higher-speed fuselage configuration introduces unprecedented tactical advantages. Fuel efficiency reduces costs, but in a pure mission-critical sense, it enables an aircraft to travel farther on a single tank of fuel and spend more “dwell” time over target locations for air-drops, force delivery or surveillance. Transport aircraft account for as much as 60-percent of the Air Force’s fuel consumption, the Air Force report says.
The largest advantage of the aircraft could well be its unprecedented space and cargo-carrying capacity, as it appears a new BWB aircraft could accommodate a massively increased payload in terms of passenger capacity or weapons delivery. Larger payloads means more impact can be achieved with fewer airplanes, something which lowers logistical demands and increases survivability by requiring fewer aircraft to compete a given set of mission requirements.
Yet another huge potential advantage with this kind of huge-bodied BWB aircraft would be in weapons platform transport, as heavier armored vehicles or greater numbers of tactical and medium sized armored vehicles can be transported. An ability to transport larger weapons systems such as Howitzers, Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles and maybe even an Abrams tank someday would help the Army’s goal of become a rapidly deployable, expeditionary force capable of quickly massing combat power when needed in combat emergency. The BWB would also seem to greatly support the Air Force’s current success expanding the mission envelope for cargo planes to include new operations such as attacking with weapons and cruise missiles and even launching and controlling recoverable drones from the aircraft. BWB possibilities would seem to massively enhance these kinds of fast-developing concepts of operation.
The Air Force released a picture or rendering of its emerging BWB configuration which looks a little stealthy with a blended wing-body-fuselage. However, while the main body configuration resembles a stealth aircraft, the BWB prototype does have vertically protruding wing tips and elevated engine structures on the back end. These contours are likely to generate some kind of radar return signal or rendering to ground-based enemy radar and air defenses. However the main fuselage design does appear as though it would certainly lower the radar signature of a larger cargo aircraft, a survivability enhancing trait.
While Kendall and other Air Force leaders explained that BWB aircraft introduce commercial advantages as well as military ones, there is certainly no shortage of ways these kinds of BWB designs could bring tactical and operational improvements to combat. With longer reach, a single aircraft can perform missions which might otherwise require more aircraft and perform missions without needing to put airmen at risk by flying a large, non-stealthy tanker aircraft.
Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University
