Warrior Maven Interview – Air Force 3-Star Weapons Developer Lt. Gen. Bunch

Welcome to the WARRIOR MAVEN WARRIOR LEADERS Series — Intvs with US Military Leaders, Program Managers and Weapons Developers – Unique Detail HERE.

WARRIOR MAVEN & Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch

Lt. Gen. Arnold W. Bunch, Jr., is the Military Deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. He is responsible for research and development, test, production, and modernization of Air Force programs worth more than $32 billion annually.Air Force Bunch BIOQ&A ***********************

Warrior Maven: We recognize and respect that there is likely much that cannot be discussed regarding the B-21. Given this, what can you tell us about its development? Will it truly bring a new generation of stealth technology to counter advanced air-defenses?

Lt. Gen. Bunch: We completed preliminary design review, which was successful. We did a manufacturing readiness assessment. We are building with open missions architecture so that, as the threat evolves, we can rapidly adapt the airplane to be able to “jump” to address things that are constantly going to change. We are giving ourselves flexibility where we can change out in a more timely fashion. The B-21 will provide us with a continued ability to hold targets anywhere around the world at risk. This will give our national command authorities options. We are today the most dominant air power the world has ever seen, and we have done a lot with our technologies. For 26 years, there has been a constant state of combat. The world has adapted and they have watched. They have adapted their defenses.

​Warrior Maven: We have reported extensively on B-2 modernization. Will the emerging B-2’s Defensive Management System enable the aircraft to better avoid enemy air defenses? What are some other B-2 upgrades we can point to?

Lt. Gen. Bunch: DMS is one of the bigger ones we have and it is progressing very well. It will vastly improve the aircrafts ability to locate and therefore fly around dangerous enemy high-tech air defenses. We are also doing EHF – extremely high frequency work with Satcom and computers. Things have been modified and put out into the field. In the future during the next phase of EHF, we will do more tech maturation and risk reduction to build more survivable command and control able to function in a nuclear environment. We are invested in nuclear command and communication to do more with the B-2 EHF and make sure it functions in the most high-risk combat scenarios – such as a nuclear weapons conflict. ​

​Warrior Maven: The recent Air Force Light Attack experiment is getting much attention. Do we know yet if one of the planes will be sent to combat? Does this potential effort impact plans for the future of the A-10?

Lt. Gen. Bunch: We are continuing to keep the A-10, which is a great asset. We have kept that going through our budget and are meeting our Congressional mandates. Light Attack is an experiment we are doing with industry to see what the art of the possible is. We are assessing technology, manufacturability and how we would maintain it. We are developing this to operate in a more permissive environment. Depending upon the results of a full assessment of the experiment, we may take a few airplanes and employ them in an operational scenario in the fight. Then we will be informed about how we go forward. We may decide that industry is not there yet, or we may decide we want to do some kind of program. This will depend upon its weapons and sensor capabilities, among other things.