Narrowing the global-strike gap with an airborne aircraft carrier

Air & Space Power Journal,  Summer, 2005  by George D. Kramlinger

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

After completing the first coordinated strike of the night, the stealth fighters and some UCAVs will return to their mother ships to refuel and rearm. Other UCAVs will remain on station gathering intelligence in preparation for the next strike. Four to six hours after completing the first strike, the stealthy fighters and UCAVs will launch to form the second strike package of the night with a new two-ship of B-2 bombers arriving from outside the theater. Arrival and departure of individual AACs may be staggered to enhance operational effectiveness while each AAC will air-to-air refuel every eight to 12 hours to maintain station time. With this battle rhythm, 12-16 AACs will be present at any one time and launch two to three strike packages every 12-24 hours before each mother ship returns to the CONUS for repairs and regeneration, replaced one-for-one by another AAC.

Although designed to operate at the high end of the conflict spectrum, AAC capability is scalable for smaller contingencies, raids, and situations involving a single attack on a fleeting, high-value target. With air-to-air refueling, a single AAC can maintain airborne alert for an extended period of time (without the crew-fatigue limitations of the B-2), waiting for the right set of conditions to conduct a low-signature strike on a time-sensitive target. Furthermore, groups of AACs could enforce a no-fly zone as part of a sustained, coercive air-presence strategy when access denial prevents regional basing.

Beyond the First Generation

A parasite-aircraft/mother-ship combination offers a less expensive and more effective method of looking at future bomber development. The future manned bomber could use the AAC and piggyback concept whereby the smaller bomber is optimized for threat penetration, survivability, and weapons delivery (especially against mobile and hardened targets), thus driving down development cost and aircraft price, while the mother ship is built for long range and payload capacity. The US aircraft industry could then optimize itself to take advantage of new technology such that it builds a small number (50-60) of relatively low-cost, up-to-date stealthy parasite bombers and UCAVs with a fairly short development cycle. (47) A stealthy, blended-wing C-5B replacement could be designed with AAC duty in mind, thus increasing the synergy between the airlift and global-strike forces. Consequently, the AAC concept offers a promising capability to reduce medium-term strategic risk, facilitate long-term transformation, and potentially revolutionize the way the Air Force procures bomber systems.

Conclusion

In view of ever-expanding global interests, the growing importance of the geographically vast Asia-Pacific region, diminished reaction time, and the proliferation of antiaccess capabilities, the United States faces a global-strike gap. Defense of US vital interests cannot wait for procurement of the next long-range strike platform or development of a hypersonic, suborbital global-strike vehicle. Consequently, the United States must narrow the global-strike gap as a hedge against uncertainty and turmoil in the near- and midterm security environment. The AAC concept enables F/A-22s, F-117s, and fighter-sized UCAVs to destroy critical mobile and hardened targets while protecting the limited B-2 fleet with fighter sweep, SAM suppression, and escort jamming over global range in an access-denial environment. A fleet of 60 AACs will reduce the near-term global-strike gap with a balance among cost, capability, flexibility, and strategic risk. Eventually, global-strike missions using AACs and B-2s will gain air superiority, neutralize WMDs, and paralyze an adversary as a means to facilitate the introduction of less stealthy combat aircraft into the theater. Airborne aircraft carriers offer a cost-effective and practical method to close the global-strike gap in an access-denial environment.