U.S. Air Force Modernization Program For Air-Dropped Weapons Is Lagging

Stealth Can't Fix This: The B-2, New B-21 and F-35 All Share a Big Problem

While advances in stealth technology, targeting, aerodynamics and computer avionics all continue to progress at alarming speeds, innovations when it comes to bomb configurations have not seen a commensurate technical acceleration, service leaders say.

"The Air Force is staying focused on weapons modernization," Ray told a group of reporters at AFA.

US Air Force researchers and bomb-makers are expressing concerns that the modernization of air-dropped weapons has been lagging-behind the many technical advances built into the larger platforms that drop them, such as the B-2, F-35 and the emerging B-21. 

While advances in stealth technology, targeting, aerodynamics and computer avionics all continue to progress at alarming speeds, innovations when it comes to bomb configurations have not seen a commensurate technical acceleration, service leaders say.

“The bomb body, minus the guidance unit, is relatively unchanged. A 500-lb. bomb body was flown in 1918, and the F-35 is now dropping these. You can’t have an airplane and not have the same generation of munitions associated with it” Maj. Gen. Larry Stutzriem, USAF (Ret.) said at the Air Force Association Air, Space & Cyber Conference. 

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