What Old Warplane Will Become the USAF's New 'Flying Arsenal'?
The B-52? C-17? Or the stealthy B-1B? Whoever is the winner, the plane will become a flying magazine for fifth-generation fighters.
By Kyle Mizokami
Nov 5, 2019
Stealth planes like the F-22 and F-35 can carry limited weapons loadouts.
The Arsenal Plane will act like one big flying magazine.
The Air Force wants to transform an existing aircraft in its inventory into the Arsenal Plane.
The U.S. Air Force is carefully considering what plane is the best fit for its new Arsenal Plane concept. The Arsenal Plane, a large aircraft packed with semi-autonomous flying weapons, is designed to provide extra firepower for fighter jets that spot targets but don’t have the weapons to take them out. The Air Force has a variety of airframes to choose from, but choosing the right one is harder than it sounds.
The Arsenal Plane concept goes back to the 1990s, when the U.S. Navy briefly considered an “Arsenal Ship.†The Arsenal Ship would have been a ship that looked like a supertanker, with a long flat deck covered with missile silos. The Arsenal Ship would have acted as a floating magazine for the rest of the fleet, providing a reserve of literally hundreds of missiles that destroyers, cruisers, and task force commanders could call upon.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a29701633/air-force-arsenal-plane/
