Defense Technology International - March 2008 - (Page 30)

PROGRAMS CLASSIFIED DECIPHERING BLACK FUNDS Next Generation Bomber illuminates secret projects in Fiscal 2009 budget BILL SWEETMAN•MINNEAPOLIS NORTHROP GRUMMAN CONCEPT he U.S. Air Force plans to put a Next Generation Bomber (NGB) into service by 2018. But according to the just-released Fiscal 2009 budget, the service will, over the next three years, invest nothing in the project. Of course, this isn’t what’s really happening. Between now and the start of system development and demonstration (SDD) for the bomber, due in 2011, a major demonstration program is being carried out, probably with Northrop Grumman as prime contractor. It is the latest of many projects, most secret, that have been masked for the past 25 years in the black world of secret military programs, which, in the 2009 budget, accounts for 43% of USAF R&D money. Evidence supporting a secret bomber prototype is overwhelming. The Air Force’s interest in a stealthy subsonic bomber goes back to the closing days of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program in late 2005. At that time, Northrop Grumman, which had studied a large UCAV called the Unmanned Global Strike System (UGSS), proposed completing one J-UCAS demonstrator as the X-47C, with a 172-ft. wingspan and two engines derived from the General Electric CF34. USAF budget documents for 2008 and 2009 show no funding for the NGB in Fiscal 2008-10, but service leaders have indicated that classified work is underway. Last year, Northrop Grumman CEO Ron Sugar said “restricted programs”—black projects—were a major contributor to third-quarter revenue for Integrated Systems (the aircraft division), and promised more good news in Fiscal 2008. He recently identified restricted programs as the company’s top new-business opportunity. During 2007, Northrop Grumman acquired Scaled Composites, a company with expertise in composite prototype aircraft. Northrop Grumman’s blackproject activities are led by Robert Mitchell, who was president of Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical. TRA’s black-project 30 T Northrop Grumman’s unmanned global strike system could be a starting point for its design of the Next Generation Bomber. history goes back to reconnaissance UAVs in the 1960s. In January, when Boeing and Lockheed Martin announced their collaboration on NGB, executives stated that flying a demonstrator would not be a decisive advantage in the competition. Lockheed Martin’s Frank Cappuccio also said that an “openness issue” was one reason Lockheed Martin could not collaborate with Northrop Grumman. Both remarks suggest that Northrop Grumman has a classiﬁed demonstrator program underway. It’s likely that the project will combine stealth, e ciency and high altitude. A signiﬁcant feature of the X-47C/UGSS was its wingspan—identical to the B-2’s despite the fact that the weapon load and thrust were a fraction of the B-2’s. This points to high-altitude operations, also the goal of Lockheed Martin’s ill-fated Polecat demonstrator. No low-observable (LO) vehicle or allwing aircraft has ﬂown e ciently at high altitudes, as the U-2 and Global Hawk do. The latter uses long-span laminarﬂow wings. But it’s di cult to maintain laminar ﬂow in a swept wing, which an all-wing aircraft needs for stability and control. It’s also a challenge to operate a high-bypass-ratio engine behind a stealth-compatible inlet. The advantage of high altitude for the NGB is daylight survivability. B-2s and F-117s cannot ﬂy in hostile airspace in daylight. Operating in clear air below 45,000 ft., at about the same altitude as fighters, they are close to a fighter pilot’s horizon, where the sky is brightest. Visual stealth technology has been considered (using forms of counter-illumination), but it is complex and hard to make compatible with LO in radar and IR bands. An NGB ﬂying at 60,00065,000 ft., however, is well above the cruising altitude of a ﬁghter. The sky is darker, and contrails do not form. Another attribute of an NGB demonstrator is all-aspect, broadband LO. Achieving stealth from all angles and across all wavebands pushes the design to a ﬂying wing with the inlet and exhaust system sheltered inside the vehicle’s perimeter. This was done on the B-2, though at a high price in complexity and weight, persistent problems with some structures, and poor maintainability. AviationWeek.com/dti DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL MARCH 2008 http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - March 2008 Contents Sweden Cancels SEP; Israel Launches Imaging Satellite; Geotextiles Secure Ammo Dump U.S. Navy Taps Neural Architecture Software to Assure Job Satisfaction Shrapnel-Like Pieces of Reactive Materials Increase Explosive Force of Bombs Technology is Rapidly Closing the Gap Between Sensors and Shooters Italian Army Program Aims to Develop a Fully Networked Land Force Political and Military Uncertainties Plague U.S. Defense Budget Democrats Put Pentagon on Notice Over Spending and Policy at DTAR Conference Russian Combat Vehicle Protects Tank Formations from Anti-Armor Weapons European Battlelabs Use Simulation to Verify Technologies and Stretch Defense Funds Malaysia Accelerates Fleet Modernization to meet Long-Term Goals U.S. Navy Says Composite Raiding Boat May Reduce Injuries From Wave Shocks Seeing Isn’t Believing When it Comes to Deciphering Funds for Secret Projects Advances in Sensors and Propulsion Make Torpedoes Ever More Lethal FAA is in No Rush to Approve Rules that Let UAVs Fly in Civil Airspace USS Truman Carrier Strike Group Patrols a Rough Neighborhood 24/7 U.S. says Sino-Russian Space Disarmament Plan is Riddled with Pitfalls Hyperspeed Projectile; “Sound Cloak” Hides Subs; Improving Nuclear Forensics Dutch Air Commodore Theo ten Haaf Analyzes the Impact of Rotary-Wing Operations One Soldier’s War is a Behind-the-Headlines Look at Russia’s Campaigns in Chechnya Black Budgets are Huge and Growing, and Often Conceal Amazing Failures

Defense Technology International - March 2008

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