Military.com: Pentagon Accelerates Future Bomber Plans
The Defense Department will begin work this year on a next-generation long-range strike aircraft, accelerating its bomber modernization plans by nearly two decades in an effort to quickly enhance the Air Force's effectiveness across the Asia-Pacific region. The Quadrennial Defense Review, set to be delivered to Congress next month, will call for the Air Force to move up the date to field a new bomber from 2037 to 2018, according to Pentagon sources familiar with the recommendation.......
The action to accelerate work on a new bomber tracks closely with a recommendation last fall for a new, long-range strike aircraft program made by Andrew Marshall, the Pentagon's director of net assessment, who called for developing capabilities necessary to deter China. That idea echoed the input he provided to the 2001 QDR, according to Pentagon officials......
Sources involved in the QDR said U.S. Strategic Command, which has responsibility for an evolving concept dubbed “global strike,” strongly advocated the need for a new bomber. These sources also said an accelerated bomber program enjoys support from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Air Force's new leadership team, including Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael Wynne......