The U.S. Air Force's new Long Range Strike (LRS) family of systems will not consist of multiple aircraft types, as widely believed. Instead, the service will most likely develop a single bomber airframe that will be able to conduct a range of missions, says the service's deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements.
Mark Gunzinger, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) in Washington, said he expected a multimission bomber. “You’d want those attributes for an aircraft you’d expect to operate in non-permissive environments, where you may not have a secure command-and-control link,” said Gunzinger, a former Air Force B-52 bomber pilot.He said the aircraft would need to be able to defend itself and be able to find and track its own targets. “Without the Long Range Strike family of systems, you can’t do AirSea battle,” Gunzinger said.