AviationWeek.com/awst AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 29
Revolutionary
Roadmap
DEFENSEThe U.S.’s air-centered strategy
has top-level backing
Bill Sweetman Washington
T
oday’s U.S. power-projection forces, and those cur-
rently planned for the future, will not be able to operate
ef ectively or ef ciently against anti-access/area-denial
(A2AD) weapons and doctrine being developed by China and
other adversaries, according to a new report by the Center
for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) that details
a new approach to defense strategy known as Third Of set.
Instead, the Pentagon should immediately refocus its de-
velopment ef orts on a global surveillance and strike (GSS)
system based on long-range, very stealthy aircraft—includ-
ing the Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) and a new family
of unmanned combat air systems (UCAS)—and submarines.
Tactical fi ghter, surface combatant and heavy land-
force programs should be cut back, the report sug-
gests, to pay the bills and rebalance the force.
The CSBA report carries far more weight than usual
because it was drafted under the leadership of deputy
defense secretary Robert Work (AW&ST March 31,
p. 20) and his senior advisers, according to a source di-
rectly involved in its production. It is intended to launch
a detailed discussion of a major change in national strat-
egy, inside and outside the Pentagon. Author Robert
Martinage, a former senior Pentagon of cial, “can nei-
ther confi rm nor deny” the extent of Work’s involve-
ment, he tells Aviation Week.
The CSBA paper details the roles of new and existing
systems in the Third Of set strategy. It recommends a
larger role for the Long-Range Strike Bomber, suggest-
ing that the program could be “accelerated and expand-
ed.” Along with the B-2 and another proposed new weapon, a
boost-glide missile launched from submarines, it is the only
system able to deal with hard and deeply buried targets in a
medium- to high-threat environment. According to the paper,
too, it has a stand-in airborne electronic attack capability and
can perform high-volume precision strike missions.
The biggest new program recommended in the report
is the future UCAS family. Conceptually, Martinage says,
this program’s prototype is already fl ying in the form of the
Northrop Grumman X-47B UCAS-D (demonstrator), which
could lead directly to a Navy operational aircraft: the CSBA
report outlines an N-UCAS with an 8-10-hr. unrefueled en-
durance and a 3,000-4,000-lb. payload. As a CSBA analyst,
Work was a vigorous proponent of a “high-end” Navy UCAS,
and his infl uence has played a part in stalling Navy plans for a
less capable and less costly solution to the Unmanned Carri-
er Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike requirement.
The CSBA report revives an idea from UCAS-D’s precur-
sor program, the Joint UCAS: Because wingspan sets a cap
on the payload and range of a carrier-based blended wing-
body aircraft, a land-based version could benefi t from being
made larger. A U.S. Air Force version, identifi ed as MQ-X,
could handle double the payload, the report suggests, and
have a 12-hr. unrefueled endurance. In a move that is unlikely
to get strong support from the fi ghter community, the Air
Force aircraft could be armed with air-to-air missiles for both
of ensive and defensive counter-air missions.
Persistence is a key advantage of UAVs, the report notes.
A primary mission for the new UCAS in Third Of set is a
“mobile and relocatable target killer,” using a combination
of unrefueled range and tanker support to fly 48-hr.-plus
missions and remain on-station beyond the limits of human
endurance. The UAVs would be nodes in an aerial commu-
nications network that would hedge against an adversary’s
counter-space activities—and thereby render anti-satellite
operations less valuable. The report also cites an unpublished
Northrop Grumman study showing that an unmanned re-
placement for the F/A-18E/F could save $56 billion over a
25-year service life, compared to a piloted aircraft.
Funding the new N-UCAS and MQ-X could call for “re-
duction in manned tactical aviation force structure” across
all services and “scaled-back procurement of all F-35 vari-
ants—including possible cancellation of the F-35C, replaced
with advanced Super Hornets and eventually N-UCAS.” In
July 2011, during Work’s tenure as deputy Navy secretary,
he directed the service to study alternatives to the F-35B/C.
The limits on the ef ectiveness of fi ghters—including the“semi-stealthy” F-35, so described to discriminate it from
the wide-band, all-aspect stealth technology of the UAVs and
LRS-B—include survivability and their dependence on tank-
ers, which are vulnerable and dif cult to protect. Martinage
concurs with Aviation Week’s assessment of the Chengdu
J-20 (page 57) as an of ensive counter-air fi ghter aimed at
tankers and other air assets. “With an extended-range air-
to-air missile the J-20 can push the tanker 800-900 mi. back.
[U.S.] fi ghters can’t even make it to the beach.”
Another unmanned vehicle recommended in the study is a
“future” stealthy, high-altitude long-endurance UAV. However,
the report notes that only three of the most important new
GSS elements are not currently under development (MQ-X,
N-UCAS and a towed payload module for submarines). The
so-called future Hale UAV appears, in fact, to be the in-devel-
opment but secret Northrop Grumman RQ-180 (AW&ST Dec.
9, 2013, p. 20). The report suggests that the RQ-180 has a light
strike capability, possibly for targets of opportunity.
An important caveat is that the Third Of set still addresses
lower-intensity confl icts. As the threat becomes less intense
and far-reaching, current systems such as tactical fi ghters
and permissive-airspace Reaper UAVs should be available.RONNIE OLSTHOORN CONCEPT FOR AW&STThe still-classifi ed Northrop
Grumman RQ-180 UAV is
thinly disguised in the CSBA
report, and will be equipped for
precision-strike and electronic-
attack missions.圀漀爀氀搀䴀愀最猀⸀渀攀琀圀漀爀氀搀䴀愀最猀⸀渀攀琀
圀漀爀氀搀䴀愀最猀⸀渀攀琀