{"id":1772378,"date":"2022-12-12T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T11:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1772378"},"modified":"2022-12-12T11:03:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T16:03:26","slug":"take-a-look-at-the-tech-family-on-the-b-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/take-a-look-at-the-tech-family-on-the-b-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a Look at the Tech Family on the B-21"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftake-a-look-at-the-tech-family-on-the-b-21%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1772378&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/003_B21_with_unmanned_escorts-900x600-1.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"share-buttons for-small\">\n<p>          <span class=\"share-label\">Share Article<\/span>\n        <\/div>\n<p>With the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airandspaceforces.com\/much-about-the-air-forces-new-b-21-bomber-remains-a-secret-following-reveal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unveiling of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airandspaceforces.com\/weapons-platforms\/b-21\/\" title=\"Learn more about the B-21 Raider\" class=\"inline-wp-link\">B-21 Raider<\/a><\/a>, speculation and interest in the new bomber have reached a fever pitch, with a first flight still to come in mid-2023. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the B-21 won\u2019t just be about the large, flying wing aircraft that rolled out in Palmdale, Calif., on Dec. 2. Air Force officials have frequently spoken about the Raider becoming the lead element of a so-called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.af.mil\/About-Us\/Fact-Sheets\/Display\/Article\/2682973\/b-21-raider\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">family of systems<\/a>,\u201d and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has made defining that family of systems one of his seven \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.af.mil\/News\/Article-Display\/Article\/2953552\/kendall-details-seven-operational-imperatives-how-they-forge-the-future-force\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">operational imperatives<\/a>\u201d for the department.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What exactly will be included in that family remains unknown, but a <a href=\"https:\/\/mitchellaerospacepower.org\/event\/research-paper-release-the-next-frontier-uavs-for-great-power-conflict-part-i-penetrating-strike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new research paper from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies<\/a>, informed by an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airandspaceforces.com\/collaborative-combat-aircraft-may-still-help-bombers-experts-say\/\">unclassified workshop<\/a> that gathered Air Force leaders, planners, and operators along with industry partners, offers some insight into what might be considered.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we haven\u2019t heard much about is the family of systems that is going to accompany [the B-21]. Just dribs and drabs of information. So this report might actually help \u2026 get a handle on some of the capabilities that might be in that family of systems, including weapons, that could help reduce risk and increase the effectiveness of our combat forces,\u201d said retired Col. Mark Gunzinger, the Mitchell Institute\u2019s director of future concepts and capability assessments and a co-author of the paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The three-day workshop, held this summer, was meant in part to develop concepts for what the Air Force calls \u201cautonomous collaborative platforms\u201d\u2014relatively cheap drones that can fly alongside manned aircraft, operating with some level of independence. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The most high-profile example of these ACPs has been the Air Force\u2019s planned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airandspaceforces.com\/air-force-touts-unity-of-effort-in-push-toward-new-ccas-collaborative-combat-aircraft\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">collaborative combat aircraft<\/a>, intended mainly for fighters. But Caitlin Lee, one of the workshop\u2019s leads and co-author of the\u00a0 paper, noted that in discussions with the Air Force Research Laboratory, officials have said they envision \u201ca whole family of potential capabilities and a range of different mission sets that this could actually involve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The workshop was aimed at exploring one of those mission sets\u2014the long-range penetrating strike mission that the B-21 will take on. Three teams of experts were tasked\u00a0with designing up to three kinds of unmanned aircraft to aid the bomber in strikes against an air base, a maritime threat, and a transporter erector launcher in a hypothetical conflict with China in 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In all three cases, no constraints were put on what kind of aircraft the teams could create, but none of them opted for an \u201cexquisite unmanned fighter\u201d or \u201cexquisite unmanned bomber\u201d that could match the B-21\u2019s range, Lee noted. That\u2019s in line with Kendall\u2019s own comments <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/07\/exclusive-air-force-scraps-b-21-drone-wingman-concept\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this past July<\/a> that the department had determined that a long-range uncrewed escort for the B-21 was cost-prohibitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the three teams created a mix of UAVs, most with a range of a few thousand miles, a few launched from other bombers. And the capabilities given to each varied as well\u2014some designed to provide defensive counterair; others as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms gathering data; others for suppression of enemy air defenses; and still others as escorts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo-thirds of the teams design ACPs for counterair, which really speaks to the need for survivability for these penetrating strike packages, where they\u2019re operating in this highly contested air environment,\u201d Lee said. \u201c \u2026 And then ISR was another really important mission. Three of the ACPs had a primary role for that, but I think all ACPs had sensors of some kind or another, because that tracking, especially mobile targets, in contested airspace is a real challenge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Just as notably, the teams sought large quantities of ACPs and were willing to trade off some capability for quantity, Lee noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the Air Force is able to buy larger numbers of lower-cost ACPs, that could really drive down risk,\u201d Lee said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s all about the modest platforms in large numbers versus trying to put more sophisticated capabilities to get that operational advantage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The exact rundown of the intended missions and numbers of drones the teams in the workshop decided on are as follows:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Maritime threat<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ACP 1: Defensive counterair, 40\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>ACP 2: ISR, communications relay, 10\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>ACP 3: Strike, 20\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Transporter erector launcher\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ACP 1: Escort, suppression of enemy air defenses, 10\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>ACP 2: ISR, Suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), offensive counterair, 144 (24 per bomber)\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>ACP 3: ISR, SEAD, offensive counterair, 120 (20 per bomber)\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Air base attack\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ACP 1: Escort, 8\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>ACP 2: SEAD, 16 initially, increased to 32\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>ACP 3: Jamming, 8\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In all three cases, the workshop experts determined that the addition of these uncrewed teammates reduced risk for the missions. But the authors did note that for the air base attack, in particular, the risk wasn\u2019t driven down as much because the current class of precision-guided munitions require bombers to fly extremely close to targets, assuming a permissive environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that is a collateral finding and recommendation from this effort\u2014that the Air Force needs to develop those mid-range weapons that will optimize the strike power and lethality of our penetrating assets,\u201d Gunzinger said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, some of the ACPs designed by the teams in the workshops were essentially loitering munitions\u2014designed to fly above targets and then attack, only to be used once. And as the B-21 continues to develop, new kinds of munitions could very well join that family of systems, too, Lee noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis family could have all kinds of different capabilities in it, whether it\u2019s space assets, munitions, and potentially ACPs,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share Article With the unveiling of the B-21 Raider, speculation and interest in the new bomber have reached a fever pitch, with a first flight still to come<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1772381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[7224,5458,3881,3819,4989],"class_list":["post-1772378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-b-21","tag-bongino","tag-family","tag-report","tag-tech"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1772378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1772381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1772378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1772378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1772378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}