is the same as fighter , bomber appeared on the battlefield from the period of fighting . Moreover, the equipment objectives of bombers have not changed to this day, and they still perform ground and sea attack missions.
However, a hundred years later, bombers are no longer indispensable in the air forces of various countries around the world - today they can only be seen in the air forces of China, the United States and Russia.
Sikorsky , the father of modern helicopters, had made considerable achievements in the aviation field before going to the United States. The picture shows the Ilya Muromets (hero in Slavic mythology) four-engine strategic bomber designed by Sikorsky. It was originally built as a luxury passenger aircraft.
bomber≈ strategic bomber
bomber Since its inception, the bomber has been divided into strategic bombers and tactical bombers based on mission attributes, target value, etc.
The mission functions of the latter have been fully taken over by attack aircraft, fighter bombers and multi-purpose fighter over the past century. Other equipment capable of completing tactical bomber missions include ballistic missiles , armed helicopters , cruise missiles , and integrated surveillance and attack drones.
As a result, the era of tactical bombers is fading away, and light bombers have disappeared from the air forces of various countries.
Compared with the replacement of tactical bombers by multi-role fighter jets, the irreplaceable role of today's bombers is mostly focused on the strategic strike level. This is exactly what big countries like the United States, China and Russia need and value.
So far, the irreplaceable aspects of bombers are mostly focused on the "strategic strike" level.
When we mention bombers today, we are talking about strategic bombers by default, which are bombers exclusive to the air forces of major countries such as China, the United States and Russia - China's H-6 family, Russia's Tu-95, Tu-160, Tu-22M, the United States' B-2, B-1B, B-52, and the newly unveiled B-21.
In the tide of multi-purpose fighter aircraft
Looking back at the development of bomber technology over the past century, we will also "accidentally" discover that the first four-engine strategic bomber in World War I, the Russian Ilya Muromets, was modified from a passenger aircraft.
Bombers at that time were generally modified from reconnaissance aircraft and seaplanes . Later, specially developed bombers appeared, but at the same time, bombers also played roles such as glider tractors, transport aircraft for VIPs or important cargo, photo reconnaissance aircraft, heavy fighter aircraft, night fighters, trainer aircraft, and communication aircraft.
With its high-speed characteristics, the "Mosquito" bomber can be used as a transport aircraft for valuable cargo or VIPs, passing through German-occupied areas and avoiding German fighter jets during World War II. The tasks it completed included transporting the Danish physicist Bohr (who made a major contribution to the creation of the first atomic bomb): he "survived" a three-hour flight on a mattress in the bomb bay. While flying high above Norway, he even passed out due to lack of oxygen because he did not hear the pilot's instructions through the intercom asking him to turn on the oxygen supply.
Some classic models in aviation history are named bombers, but they are all multi-purpose - for example, the German Junkers Ju 88 during World War II, the British de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito, Hawker Hart, etc. Although they were born as fast and light bombers, they have all spawned families that can meet the above purposes.
Although this "multi-purpose" characteristic has not appeared in many models during the post-war and Cold War periods, even the F-15 "Eagle", which stubbornly claimed that "not a gram of its weight is for ground attack", still successfully transformed from an air superiority fighter into an all-round "attack Eagle" in the later period.
F-15 successfully transformed from a heavy air superiority fighter into the later "bomb truck".
Multi-purpose is also the mainstream distinctive feature of today's fighter jets (it can even be said to be multi-type fighter jets). Air superiority combat and the ability to attack both the ground and the sea have become the basic skills of the third-generation fighter .
goes one step further, and there is also the situation of "one model conquers the world": the air forces of some small and medium-sized countries tend to choose a new generation of advanced combat trainer aircraft to undertake tasks ranging from training and teaching to air superiority and ground attack combat missions.
Even the fourth-generation ("fifth-generation" fighter in the West) F-35, which is named "JSF", while focusing on stealth characteristics, also thoroughly implements the principle of multi-purpose from the bottom design.
Today's F-35 family fits the definition of "multi-purpose" very well. The last American fighter with similar versatility was the F-4 Phantom II. Why is
just a "bomber" machine?
Looking at the B-21, which is called the "sixth generation fighter" by the United States, from this perspective, if it is just limited to the design name of "bomber", it is obviously too narrow.
’s observation and imagination of the B-21, if you remove its “B” (bomber) label, you will feel suddenly enlightened.
Looking back at the beginning of this century, Lockheed Martin once promoted to the Pentagon the "area bomber" FB-22 derived from the stealth fighter F-22; so now, faced with a new generation stealth platform like the B-21 with a larger body platform, longer range, and larger bomb bay (larger mission load capacity), the U.S. military and manufacturer Northrop Grumman have no reason not to further "make the best use of everything."
In the stealth era, the United States ranked air superiority capability as the highest priority capability on the F-22. But it is not that we have not considered launching a ground attack type based on it. At the beginning of this century, Lockheed Martin launched the FB-22 regional bomber based on the F-22.
The B-2, which was built to target Cold War rivals, ended up with a production volume of only 21 aircraft and an expensive price. Coupled with the limitations of the technology of the times, the possibility of further tossing in multi-purpose is not high.
After all, why should a new generation bomber be just a "bomber" aircraft?
In addition to emphasizing the next generation stealth technology in the introduction of the B-21, Northrop Grumman also emphasized the key word "open system architecture" - this not only shows the convenience of its subsequent upgrades and improvements, but also shows that it has great potential to derive strategic reconnaissance aircraft , communication command aircraft, electronic reconnaissance aircraft , electronic warfare aircraft and other modifications. Another keyword of
is "advanced network functions". The implication is that the B-21 will be like the "midfielder" on the football field, serving as the "brain" of the team connecting the front and back fields, and using it as the core to weave the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), electronic attack and communication command network for the "front field".
As a forward, B-21 can also rely on this network (other platform nodes on the network) to enhance its situational awareness capabilities against the enemy and clear the fog of war.
A key reason why the "old aircraft" in the mid-20th century can "live long" to this day is the technological development of airborne weapons and the maturity and popularization of long-range precision guided munitions. So, what kind of future will the next generation of airborne weapons depict on the new white paper of the B-21? The reason why the
bomber fuselage still has the ability to carry out strategic strikes is because it has a larger body platform than a multi-purpose fighter aircraft and has the inherent advantage of "large aircraft carrying large bombs". All long-range or large-yield weapons can be mounted under its wings or in its belly.
Now, the large and stealthy B-21 is here. In the next half century, when it is combined with new concept airborne weapons represented by air-launched drones, hypersonic weapons, laser weapons, etc., what kind of combat effectiveness will it produce?
If the combination of the F-35 and the airborne laser weapon on the concept map can be called "a dojo in a snail shell", then the advantages of the B-21 with a larger body size are even more obvious, and there is greater room for improvement in the power, thermal management and cooling of the laser .
Anti-missile is also a potential application scenario for airborne laser weapons.If the laser on the F-35 can counter cruise missiles, then if the B-21 is equipped with a laser, it may be able to enter the battlefield and use high-power laser to "anti-missile" ballistic missiles.
The quality of "digitalization" remains to be tested
How the B-21 will develop next, and whether it will develop in a multi-purpose direction, all depends on the next move of the manufacturer Northrop Grumman .
got the contract in 2015, and it only took Northrop Grumman 7 years to launch the first B-21, which undoubtedly proves this "old shop"'s foundation in flying wing technology.
At the same time, it can be regarded as a "preliminary test" of the agile software development, advanced manufacturing technology, digital engineering tools, digital twins, digital factories and "national team" (a team of more than 8,000 people led by Northrop Grumman and more than 400 suppliers from 40 states and the U.S. Air Force) promoted by Northrop Grumman.
John Northrop, the founder of Northrop Grumman, single-handedly shaped the flying wing gene of this old store.
Just like the F-35 is to the F-22, the B-21 will be as important as the stealth performance at the beginning of the design (focusing on the stealth coating).
But behind the seemingly new and confusing new terms, whether Northrop Grumman’s promotion is self-promotion or a real leap in capabilities will all remain to be tested in the subsequent test flights, testing, mass production, and deployment of the B-21. Even during the long-term operation, maintenance, upgrade and modernization after entering service, the performance of the B-21 is also worthy of attention:
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" Whether it is really as advertised, able to exert "digital" performance, shorten the design and testing cycle of new aircraft, improve production efficiency, and better control operations. Operation and maintenance costs, faster upgrades?
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If Northrop Grumman's paper promotion is fully realized, or partially realized, then it is conceivable that "digitization" will undoubtedly become a threshold indicator for sixth-generation fighters, just like stealth capabilities for fifth-generation fighters .
In 2003, U.S. Air Force Secretary James Roach stated that his vision was to have a fleet of 150 FB-22s (which is also closer to the B-21 equipment scale discussed by the U.S. military today) to be installed in the Air Force. This also shows that after the B-2, neither the US Air Force, as the first party, nor manufacturers such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin have stopped exploring the next generation of bombers.
According to Northrop Grumman’s public information, the B-21 was designed from the beginning to be quickly upgradeable without the need for an overall upgrade. The B-21 can be given new technologies, capabilities and weapons through the seamless integration of agile software upgrades and built-in hardware flexibility.
Of course, all of this will be closely related to the final production of B-21 in the future. In particular, whether the cost of each B-21 can be controlled at a relatively low price ($550 million per aircraft in the Pentagon's Critical Design Review CDR).
When the B-21's equipment reaches a certain scale and meets the Pentagon's basic needs, will it start to become more multi-functional? We wait for testing.
