"The Air Force might have something up their sleeve which is very hush-hush. The Secretary of the Air Force recently hinted that maybe 100 is the total number of B-21 Raiders which will be built. Period. Why? There might be something in the offing which is even a shinier penny."
Even though I am a Navy guy, I am fascinated by our USAF platforms. Does not matter if they are fighter jets or bombers. Love them all. It is no secret that America leads the world in the exotic technologies which go into making some of our real bad a** airplanes. We know it, and the world knows it. That being said, the B-21 Raider is just coming online this year. At first glance, it looks like the B-2 Spirit. But it is the Spirit, and a whole lot more.
With the Spirit, we still have the B-1 Bone and the B-52 BUFFs in service. Both are still of use, but nowhere near as stealthy as the B-2 and B-21 are (or going to be). The Air Force brass is so excited about the B-21 Raider, the build plan was to build a minimum of 100 of them. Maybe even 200. But that was yesterday. Today, there is a new message coming from the Air Force.
The Air Force might have something up their sleeve which is very hush-hush. The Secretary of the Air Force recently hinted that maybe 100 is the total number of B-21 Raiders which will be built. Period. Why? There might be something in the offing which is even a shinier penny. What? Wait - better than the Raider? The most feared bomber in the world?
For those paying attention, the race for the next generation (6th generation) of fighter jets is fast and furious. The race for the NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance) fighter jets is going at a blinding speed. I guess the same is also true for our strategic bombers. But here is the side benefit. Our civilian aircraft are also taking advantage of some of these new technologies. Like super-sonic travel without the sonic booms. So what? Here is the so what - New York to Tokyo in a fraction of what today's travel time is.
By the way, an interesting contest is going on right now within the Air Force. The F-35 Lightening is thought by many to be our best plane. Better than the F-22 Raptor. But - the F-35 is starting to get the long-awaited Block Four upgrade, which will make this plane even more awesome. But the F-22 is also getting an upgrade, which will make it just as awesome as the F-35. Since they both belong to us, this is a race in which nobody loses.
I wish I could write a glowing tale about our shipbuilding these days, but I can't. As good as the USAF is with introducing their new stuff, is as bad as the Navy is these days. News flash - we need a strong Navy just as much as we need a strong Air Force. I guess first, we need a strong Commander-in-Chief. We can address that in November.
No comments:
Post a Comment