By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Launching a “mass” of 12 B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri certainly emerges as a visible “deterrence” message by virtue of demonstrating the size, scope and deployability of the Air Force stealth bomber fleet. Yet this “massing” of stealth attack power involves other variables as well, lingering beneath the more self-evident intended message.
The B-2 formation introduces several critical implications relating to tactics, strategy, attack formations and advanced technology. While the US Air Force fleet of 20 B-2 Spirit Bombers has origins 30-years ago, today’s B-2 platform is an almost entirely different plane. The basic external configuration of the aircraft may resemble original B-2s in a general way, yet today’s B-2 is engineered with a 1,000-fold faster computer processor, advanced Defensive Management Systems sensors to detect and elude air defenses, new weapons applications, next-generation communications technology and, quite likely, substantial enhancements in the aircraft’s stealth properties.
elements of this formation, put together as part of the Air Force’s “Spirit Vigilance” exercise,
“Sun Tzu Mass Matters”
The significance of the large formation indicates the ongoing importance of Sun Tzu’s famous “mass matters” phrase in “The Art of War.” Despite the advent of longer range more precise weapons and sensors, fortified by increased multi-domain networking technologies, AI-enabled computing and unmanned systems, an ability to “mass” power in the air is still tactically quite significant. In an initial sense, massing B-2 widens the sphere or combat envelope in which a B-2 could attack, something of great significance against a large adversary, as high value targets are likely to be disaggregated across large swaths of territory.
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The greater margin of difference likely also resides in newer transport layer networking technologies and computing now enable high-speed data exchange and data processing.(1,000-fold faster).
This means B-2s can not only “blanket” an area with stealth attack power and destroy multiple air-defense sites and command and control nodes at one time but also “coordinate” attack missions between aircraft through target detail sharing. This aligns with modern Pentagon thinking which, enabled by programs such as Joint All Domain Command and Control and new generations of networking technologies, seek to deploy large attack platforms as both offensive systems and sensor “nodes” within a larger, joint, multi-domain combat formation.
A larger number of aircraft can also of course build in redundancy, enabling B-2s to reach critical over-target areas in the event some B-2s are seen, stopped or disabled by air defenses. A larger number of B-2s simply helps ensure that the aircraft’s core mission, that of creating an air-defense free “air corridor” through which 4th-generation fighters, drones and even cargo planes can transit into a warzone. Also, while air defense systems such as the Russian-built S-500 are increasingly able to detect and attack multiple targets at one time and leverage advanced digital networking, massing and dispersing B-2 stealth attack power massively increases the likelihood of success in any bombing campaign. While the B-21 does look a little “Stealthier” than a B-2 in terms of a flat, rounded, blended horizonal wing-body and embedded inlets, the shape of the B-2 seems to remain quite stealthy. For years, many have suggested that the B-2 is likely to appear as though it were a bird to enemy radar due to its configuration. Aerodynamically, the absence of sharp angles and protruding structures provides few “shapes” for an electromagnetic ping to bounce off of and generate a return rendering or accurate “picture” to enemy radar.
B-2 upgrades have been underway for many years, as it was more than a decade ago when a Senior Air Force B-2 program manager told Warrior about the scope and quality of B-2 upgrades. Many of these enhancements were already underway in 2014, and many of them have now come to fruition and are operational.
Also, newer technologies such as the Defensive Management System, put in place in recent years, enable the aircraft to “find,” “see,” and potentially avoid enemy air defenses by flying outside of their detection range and attack reach.
It also stands to reason that the B-2 now has vastly improved stealth properties in areas such as “thermal management,” acoustical signature and radar absorbent coating materials. Certainly many details related to stealth enhancements are not likely to be available for security reasons, yet there are undoubtedly new technologies able to decrease the aircraft’s “heat signature,” making it less detectable to radar and infrared sensors. Should an internally buried engine emits a much smaller “heat signature,” the aircraft will fly at temperatures closer to the surrounding atmosphere, therefore making it less detectable. Newer composite materials may have been added, exhaust emissions have likely been adjusted and weapons developers are almost certain to have devised new ways to suppress the aircraft’s electronic signature while still enabling communication.
Improved stealth is critical to the continued relevance of the B-2, as it is designed to evade both lower-frequency “surveillance radar” able to discern something is “there” and higher frequency “engagement” radar able to “lock-on” and destroy a target. Enhancements to the platform have likely massively increased the B-2s ability to avoid both kinds of radar detection and hold high value enemy targets at risk against a modern, technological advance network of air defense systems.
Weapons
The B-2 is also quite different in terms of weaponry, as it is now configured with new software, fire control enhancements and interfaces to enable greater flexibility and a much more expansive arsenal. For instance, the B-2 will be armed with the now in development nuclear-capable Long-Range-StandOff weapon cruise missile and upgraded B-61 nuclear bomb. Newer B-2 weapons applications enable much greater flexibility for stealth bombers on attack; an LRSO can hold targets at risk with conventional or nuclear weapons from ranges well-beyond the reach of enemy air defenses, and the B-2 has also been testing and air-dropping its upgraded B-61 Mod 12 nuclear bomb. Unlike previous or existing B-61 variants, the new B-61 Mod 12 combines specific attack attributes into a single weapon. This means a more limited yield nuclear attack, proximity or“area” detonation, earth-penetrating strike or large-scale explosive effect can be achieved with a single B-61 variant. The weapon is essentially “tailorable.”
B-2 & B-21
What much of this amounts to is that the B-2, while initially developed to combat and defeat Soviet Air Defenses, has remained relevant and even critical into 2014 and beyond. In fact there are indications from Senior Air Force weapons developers that the service will fly the B-2 for a decade or more into the future. The enhancements and upgrades to the aircraft seem to be what makes this possible, and it is something of great relevance to the Air Force. The B-21 Raider, a new generation in stealth bombing, is on the way, yet it will be many more years before they are operational in impactful numbers. Therefore, the Air Force must maintain, upgrade, sustain and enhance the B-2 to remain effective in a modern high-tech threat environment. Perhaps this was the point of the exercise “massing” B-2s … as it seems to emerge as a way to send a message to
the world and to potential adversaries that the US can project massive, stealthy, high-tech bombing power anywhere in the world … now if needed… years before a larger scale arrival of the B-21.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization and 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
