More B-21s Likely; B-1s To Carry Up To 8 Hypersonic Weapons
The U.S. has 156 bombers today. But the Air Force is committed to boasting 386 squadrons, up 75 from its total today. "Certainly," Gen. Timothy Ray said, "that means good growth for the bombers."
By Colin Clark on September 17, 2019 at 12:17 AM
AFA 2019: The United States will probably need substantially more B-21 bombers than the 100 it currently plans to buy. He didn’t say it that way, but that’s the only conclusion one can reach after listening to the head of Air Force Global Strike, Gen. Timothy Ray, here.
The US has 156 bombers today. But the Air Force is committed to boasting 386 squadrons, up 75 from its total today. “Certainly,†Ray said, “that means good growth for the bombers.†He cited outside studies that conclude the Air Force needs 225 bombers. The current official benchmark, set by the bomber roadmap, is for 75 B-52s and 100 of the new B-21s bombers being built by Northrop Grumman. So 225 would mean another 50 bombers.
As we reported last year, the math for more bomber squadrons was that there would probably need to be an additional 75 B-21 bombers bought to boost the Air Force bomber squadrons by 2030, 25 more than the estimates in the outside studies Ray mentioned.
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/09/more-b-21s-likely-b-1s-to-carry-up-to-8-hypersonic-weapons/
