US air force equips B-1B bomber with hypersonic weapons
Created decades ago, the American supersonic strategic bomber with a variable sweep wing B-1B Lancer ("Ulan") of the US air force will acquire new combat capabilities - the ability to use hypersonic weapons.
The US air force released a photo of a B-1B Lancer aircraft taking off from Edwards air force base in California with a hypersonic Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff missile suspended from an external pylon. This is reported by Fox News.
The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile is an American high-precision air-to-surface cruise missile developed by Lockheed Martin Corporation. The product is designed to defeat important, highly protected stationary and movable targets (quasi-stationary), in any weather conditions and at any time of the day, from distances outside the range of enemy air defense systems. However, this rocket has a relatively low flight speed, actually subsonic, in the region of 775-1000 km / h.
As the interlocutor of the Newspaper said.Ru", structurally ARRW is a solid-fuel aeroballistic missile with a warhead in the form of a detachable hypersonic warhead with a Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) rocket engine, which has been created for some time under the auspices of the DARPA Agency. The exact characteristics of the system are unknown, although unofficially its TBG combat unit is credited with a speed of up to Mach 20.
Presumably, the first aerodynamic tests of the TBG combat unit were conducted in March 2019. According to some sources, the ARRW missile is planned to be created, first of all, in a nuclear version. The product developer is Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Corporation.
The preliminary characteristics of the AGM-183A ARRW missile were reported in an interview with Air Force Magazine by major General Andrew J. Gebara, Director of strategic plans, programs and requirements of the us air force Strategic command. According to him, "this product can fly almost 1000 miles in 10-12 minutes, which is amazing." If we are talking about land miles, this gives a maximum range of about 1,600 km and the speed of the combat unit between M-6.5 and M-8 (that is, the speed exceeding the speed of sound from 6.5 to 8 times). Previously, even the approximate characteristics of ARRW were not disclosed.
"Adapting some of our most capable B-1B bombers to use hypersonic weapons is vital. In fact, this is a transition from the bombers that we have today to the air forces of tomorrow, " General Tim ray, head of the us air force Strategic command, said in a statement.
It is assumed that the b-1B strategic bomber will be able to carry four or more hypersonic missiles in internal weapons bays.
Earlier, General ray stated that the Strategic command wants to repair and upgrade the remaining B-1B aircraft (that is, 44 units) after the US air force writes off 17 units (planned for reduction under the draft defense budget of fiscal year 2021).
This upgrade will include the restoration of eight external suspension units, which were originally planned to accommodate two strategic cruise missiles AGM-86 ALCM on each; these suspension units were dismantled in connection with the Russian-American strategic arms reduction treaties, which provide for the rejection of the use of B-1B bombers as nuclear weapons carriers.
"My goal would be to get at least one squadron of B-1B aircraft equipped with external suspension units to carry the ARRW hypersonic cruise missile," ray said.
Recall that the squadron of strategic bombers B-1B usually has 18 aircraft.
The 412th test wing at Edwards air force base in California last August demonstrated options for equipping the B-1B with additional weapons capabilities, including the use of external suspensions, as well as enlarged internal compartments and the use of the Common Strategic Rotary Launcher (CSRL) fuselage turret launcher for carrying NON-nuclear jassm-ER cruise missiles.
According to the military, both hypersonic missiles and jassm (Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile) or JASSM-ER (extended-range products) can be placed on the external suspension units of B-1B bombers. IN addition, lrasm missiles (long-range anti-ship missiles) can be suspended on the aircraft.
Representatives of the air force on this occasion said that the combat load of the B-1B bomber could increase from 24 to 40 weapons.
"This turns the B-1 into a more powerful carrier of a wide variety of weapons," said Lieutenant Colonel Dominic Ross, an observer for elements of the B-1B program from the us air force Strategic command.
In recent years, the US air force has been upgrading the b-1B strategic bomber, improving weapons, avionics, communications systems, and engines.
The new integrated onboard radio-electronic equipment B-1B, Fox News reports, includes new displays for crews and communication channels for exchanging data in flight, an inter-machine interface for correcting information in motion, for example, changing the location of a target in flight. Part of this update includes the use of what the US air force calls a fully integrated guidance module, a system that combines the controls of the guidance module with the video stream sent to the aircraft's cockpit.
In 1984, the first production b-1B aircraft took to the air for the first time, and in the summer of 1985, bombers began to arrive in the us air force combat units. In 1984-1988, 100 aircraft of this type were built.
The maximum flight speed of the B-1B at high altitude is 1,330 km / h (m-1,25), the practical ceiling is 15,240 m. The range of flight with normal combat load at high altitude reaches 9,600 km.
The b-1B can carry JDAM-type bombs (a set of GPS - based equipment that converts existing free - falling bombs into all-weather adjustable ammunition) of a wide variety of calibers, ranging from 227 kg (500 lb - GBU-38) to 904 kg (2000 lb-GBU-31). In addition, the combat load of the B-1B can include the so-called GBU-39 small-diameter perspective bombs.
The first combat use of the B-1B took place during operation Desert Fox. It was conducted between 16 and 19 December 1998 against important military and political targets in Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein's refusal to comply with a UN Security Council resolution.
In 1999, B-1B became part of operation Noble Anvil ("Noble anvil"), which included a series of attacks on objects in Serbia.
Since the fall of 2001, the B-1B has been actively involved in operations against the Taliban (an organization banned in Russia) in Afghanistan. During the first six months of operation Enduring Freedom, eight B-1B bombers dropped almost 40% of the coalition's total air assets.
In 2003, B-1B participated in operation Iraqi Freedom ("Freedom of Iraq"), which was aimed at overthrowing the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Since August 2014, B-1BS have been actively used against the forces of the "Islamic state" (is, the organization is banned in Russia) in Syria as part of operation Inherent Resolve.
"The characteristics and extensive modernization capabilities of the aircraft allowed the B-1B Lancer to easily fit into the modern aviation strategy. There is no doubt that equipping Ulanov with hypersonic missiles will dramatically increase the combat capabilities of this bomber," said Konstantin Makienko, Deputy Director Of the center for strategy analysis.
Mikhail Khodarenok
