The end of the Cold War temporarily put an end to the idea of equipping bombers with anti-ship missiles: the US adversary had committed suicide, there were no new ones. A few years later, those B-52s that were retrofitted as carriers of "Harpoons" were written off. The age of the cars took its toll. Already in the mid-nineties, the Americans did not have the opportunity to attack a surface ship with the help of a heavy attack aircraft of the Air Force. For the time being, they did not need it.
However, they continued training over the sea. Bombers were systematically used during exercises to detect surface targets, and also practiced mining.
Placing mines from the air has been a traditional mission for U. S. heavy bombers since 1945, and has never been abandoned by the U. S. Air Force. The B-52 crews regularly practiced these naval tasks too.
The so-called global war on terrorism that began after September 11, 2001 (in fact, the power redistribution of the Middle East) made the use of bombers over the sea a purely theoretical task for a long time. On the contrary, now the fleet was invested in a land war, sending not only the marines to Afghanistan and Iraq, but also plugging the shortage in the rear units with urgently mobilized sailors from the ship's crew, who, after a short training course, instead of the central post of a nuclear submarine or ship, ended up at some base. in the Afghan mountains with the task of guarding duty while real soldiers are fighting.
Orions of the base patrol aircraft with their equipment for radio interception also showed up there, no matter how ridiculous it may sound.
Nevertheless, even in these years, the B-52 crews did not completely give up training to search for naval targets.
In the 2010s, however, the Chinese question escalated sharply. China not only gained enormous economic power, not only continued to insist that Taiwan is also its territory, but also built a fleet, invested money in African countries and, on the whole, turned into the most important world player in terms of weight. But the Americans could not tolerate such a combination: there should be only one player in the world. While China was terrorizing the Orions patrolling in the air, it was one thing, but the construction of an ocean-going fleet by it and the mass of investment projects in the world became a challenge for the United States of a completely different order.
The Chinese were building up the fleet just at a hurricane rate, moreover, it grew not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively. Ground systems also developed - the same H-6 bombers with missile weapons. From a certain point, information about Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles was thrown into the press. I must say, this idea is very dubious, but the confidence of the Chinese in their combat systems after a certain moment was transferred to the Americans.
The inability of the elites and the US population to agree that the opposing side also has some interests and rights, in fact, guaranteed that the United States would not lag behind China so easily, especially since China did a good job of provoking. And soon the training flights intensified again. So far - no missiles.
New old concept
Already mentioned in last article Air Force Lieutenant General D. Deptula wrote:
“The mobility of naval targets creates difficulties with target notification and target designation. However, for two hours, a B-52 pair is capable of surveying 140,000 square miles (364,000 square kilometers) of the ocean surface. An order of magnitude more than a couple of surface ships. This field of combat missions also epitomizes the ability to operate with Battle Cloud, an approach that integrates various reconnaissance and strike aircraft and surface platforms. In the 80s, the Air Force and the Navy practiced notification of the B-52 about the presence of a target with the help of Orions, Hokaev and E-3A AWACS aircraft. In 2004, as Director of Air Force Operations in the Pacific Ocean, I ran the Resulant Fury test exercise to show that the E-8 radar reconnaissance and targeting aircraft could detect and track naval targets and transmit information to B -52 and aboard their weapons so that they can attack enemy ships while they move out to sea.
Navy Poseidon aircraft and MQ-4C UAVs can also detect surface targets and transmit this information to bombers. The interoperability and integration of combat networks in the Air Force and the Navy are steadily improving."
Deptula proposes to use the existing B-1B for war at sea, and use the B-2 for especially complex strikes against surface targets, and in the future - the B-21.
Theoretically, radar stealth could be a serious help for a bomber to attack well-protected surface targets.
In reality, however, things went a little differently.
Impact of LRASM
A key place in the US plans is occupied by a new anti-ship missile, created under the LRASM program (Long Range Anti Ship Missile, long-range anti-ship missile). The specificity of this anti-ship missile system is that it is capable of performing an independent search and classification of the target and attacking the target, the "portrait" of which is embedded in its memory.
Since the growth of the Chinese fleet was already quite outlined by that time, the US Air Force was also puzzled as to what contribution they could make to the war with China, if one begins. Since 2013, the Air Force began testing such a missile, using the B-1B as a carrier, but now there were some differences in their approach.
In the "old" times, when it came to the actions of the B-52, two variants of the attack were practiced: with the classification of the target by the aircraft crew itself and with the attack in the mode, which the Americans call Stand-off - by external target designation without direct observation of the target. This, by the way, seriously distinguished the American approach from the Soviet one. In the latter case (in those days), the target was always classified before the attack.
Now, with the arrival of a new anti-ship missile system, only one option was being worked out - "strike from over the horizon", stand-off. The Americans no longer wanted to "substitute". Although technically, the B-1B has the ability to independently find the enemy's order for its radar station. In extreme cases, it is possible to work “the old fashioned way”, but this is just as “non-basic” mode of operation, as, for example, the use of a homing torpedo as a forward-facing torpedo is technically possible, but the mode is very “abnormal”.
The main thing is precisely the launch of a missile into the target area, the location of which is known with some accuracy, but direct contact with the carrier is not maintained, and the movement elements are not determined.
With such a tactical model of use, it would make no difference which aircraft to use as a carrier of anti-ship missiles, especially since the B-1Bs were extremely intensively used to solve tactical problems during the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and were "snapped up", moreover, it was obvious that their wear and tear will be very big after these wars. But there was one caveat.
The B-52 was never armed with the LRASM, but the ancestors of this missile, the JASSM series strike missiles, are quite capable of carrying it. The number of missiles of this type that can be placed on the B-52 is 20.
And on B-1B - 24 units. Moreover, the B-1B is much more versatile in terms of “finishing off survivors with bombs”. In an emergency, he will be much better able to perform a low-altitude air defense breakthrough or escape "under the radio horizon."
It has a higher cruising speed and a lower reaction time. And it is also not in demand and has no alternative as a carrier of cruise missiles, unlike the B-52. Now the US Air Force is undergoing a program to extend the life of the remaining old AGM-86C cruise missiles with a nuclear warhead, which should "hold out" until they are replaced with new weapons, which is expected by the early 30s. The B-1B cannot carry these missiles, and it is not so "expensive" for them to risk in naval strike operations as the B-52. It is not that valuable to the United States.
The B-2, in turn, is very expensive and has the most important task of delivering nuclear strikes with bombs, today it is the only carrier of nuclear weapons in the United States that can be retargeted in flight or sent out against a protected target whose coordinates are not known exactly and which needs to be detected …
The result was logical: the B-1B was chosen as the carrier of the new anti-ship missile and "naval bomber".
Since 2013, these aircraft have been used as a test platform for new missiles. But, as Lieutenant General Deptula wrote, the B-2 and B-52, if necessary, can also very quickly be armed to strike at sea targets, just for the time being the Americans did not need it.
Marine, missile, American
One important fact that many do not understand: the United States is not preparing to equip its bombers with anti-ship missiles and create something like a Soviet naval missile-carrying aircraft.
They did it a long time ago. Their combat bombers have long been equipped with anti-ship cruise missiles and have long been trained to attack naval targets. All this is already in service.
After successful experiments with the new anti-ship missile system, the US Air Force began an active process of mastering it in combat units. The LRASM was still being tested, and the Air Force had already chosen a bomber wing, which would become the "core" of the US Air Force's anti-ship forces. This is the 28th Air Wing, based at Ellsworth AFB, whose pilots once hunted down Soviet ships in their B-52s.
In the spring of 2018, AB Ellsworth launched an "academic training" program for pilots of B-1B bombers armed with the 28th Air Wing, during which they were supposed to receive initial theoretical training in the use of new weapons, and, presumably, in the tactics of strikes against surface targets …
Starting in the summer of 2018, the personnel began training on simulators. This was followed by a course of practical training already on airplanes, with real flights, as a result of which, in December 2018, the combat readiness of the 28th air wing as a naval strike unit became a reality, as well as missile readiness in service with bombers … The American naval missile aircraft has become a reality again.
Initially, it was assumed, and it is still mainly so, that the bombers of the Strategic Air Command would be "aimed" at the rapidly growing Chinese fleet.
But the increased American pressure on Russia led to an expanded interpretation of the tasks of the 28th Air Force Wing.
On May 29, 2020, bombers from the 28th Air Wing appeared over the Black Sea. Covered by Polish F-16 fighters and Ukrainian Air Force fighters, the bombers performed strike missions against the Russian Navy and demonstrated to everyone the readiness of the US Air Force to act if necessary against the Russian fleet. The Americans used two bombers in this sortie. For some reason, we did not notice the fact that these were aircraft and crews specializing in strikes against sea targets. And he quite matters to himself.
The Black Sea Fleet does not have as many ships significant from a military point of view as missiles can be carried by two such aircraft …
Near future
However, not everything is so rosy with the US Air Force. The wear and tear of the bombers, which have been used with great intensity since 2001, played a cruel joke on the plans of the Air Force.
Today, the US Air Force has 61 B-1B bomber. All aircraft are constantly in need of minor repairs, their combat readiness coefficient has been reduced compared to the normal for this type of aircraft. There are indications that the number of aircraft of this type will soon collapse.
While the US Air Force announces the following information. During 2020 and early 2021, 17 units will be written off from the existing B-1B bombers, which will bring the number of combat aircraft to 44 units. The remaining aircraft will, regularly undergoing repairs and, possibly, modernizations, serve until the new B-21 Raider bomber enters service and will be replaced in a board-to-board manner.
The US Air Force emphasizes that those 17 aircraft that will be decommissioned are now, as they say, "on the wing", and even the list of aircraft that will be decommissioned has not yet been determined.
The reality, however, may differ slightly from these claims. Of course, such that the entire B-1B fleet would be chained to the ground will not be absolutely certain. They will continue to fly. But the Air Force seems to have certain concerns.
Currently, the United States Air Force, in conjunction with the Navy again returned to the idea of using the B-52, however, the Americans deny the connection of this idea with the future write-offs of the B-1. But work is underway to integrate the LRASM into the B-52 armament. As well as in the B-2 armament.
If we assume that everything is bad with the B-1, then these works mean that the United States has a backup option in the form of the B-52, which the Americans initially did not want to throw on these tasks, but there was no choice left.
And if we assume that everything is going with the B-1B as US officials say, then the Air Force has an additional tool in naval warfare, which will allow them to sharply increase the salvo.
But what can be said with a very high degree of probability is about two things. The ability to use US Air Force bombers against surface targets is back, and for a long time. And the B-21, this bomber of the future, is likely to be capable of performing such tasks immediately.
And the US Air Force on August 14, 2020 issued a Request for Information (RFI) about weapon systems for aircraft that would allow attacking surface ships and tactical aircraft. The details are secret, but the very fact of the request was made public. The Air Force is definitely making a turn towards war at sea, and the Americans also have experience of using tactical aviation in such a war, albeit a long one. However, this is a completely different story.
America's adversaries at sea are facing tough times. However, as always.
