The prospect of budget cuts complicate a central dilemma for the Air Force: Its fleet is wearing out and replacement aircraft are proving more expensive than expected.
The new bomber is the Air Force’s biggest new program, and, proponents say, a must-have as anti-access/area denial threats improve and proliferate. Such threats are emerging even in what were once considered “low-end” conflicts, which means the service must buy weapons, like the bomber, that can be used across the spectrum of war, said Mark Gunzinger, a former B-52 pilot turned analyst at the Center of Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C.
The Air Force has spent a lot of money on delivering intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to support the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the wars wind down, Gunzinger said, the Air Force needs to divest itself of unmanned aircraft that cannot operate in high-threat areas and instead invest in a new stealthier pilotless machine.