Lockheed Martin FB-22
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The Lockheed Martin FB-22 was a proposed supersonic stealth bomber aircraft for the United States Air Force, derived from the F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter. Lockheed Martin proposed its design in the early 2000s with support from certain Air Force leaders as an interim "regional bomber" to complement the aging U.S. strategic bomber fleet, whose replacement was planned to enter service after 2037. The FB-22 was to leverage much of the design work and components from the F-22 to reduce development costs.
Lockheed Martin suspended work on the concept following the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, which called for a new and much larger strategic Next-Generation Bomber by 2018; this program had morphed into the Long Range Strike Bomber.
BackgroundEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In March 1999, the Air Force released a Long Range Bombers white paper in response to a Congressional mandate for the service to update its bomber roadmap. The paper stated that the service's current fleet of strategic bombers consisting of the B-52, B-1, and B-2 would be sufficient until around 2037, when they will need to be replaced by a new "capability" with an acquisition program starting in 2019.<ref name="BomberRoadmap">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="LRB_WhitePaper_1999">Template:Cite report</ref> However, this target date frustrated members of Congress who hoped to see greater budgetary emphasis on the bomber mission. Furthermore, the subsequent 2001 Department of Defense (DoD) Quadrennial Defense Review identified increasing threats to U.S. power projection, and the Air Force's aging bomber fleet. One of the key threats identified by the review was the increasing prevalence of sophisticated air defense systems which could deny airspace access to any aircraft without stealth capability.<ref name="2001 QDR">Template:Cite book</ref> In November 2001, the Air Force released an updated white paper on Long Range Strike Aircraft, which acknowledged these challenges and also anticipated a strategic shift from nuclear deterrence to conventional precision bombing and network-centric warfare for global power projection in potentially unexpected conflict zones. Although the updated paper identified the possibility of a replacement "capability" entering service in the 2025 to 2030 timeframe, it cautioned that this was not an in-depth or detailed bomber roadmap.<ref name="LRSA White Paper">Template:Cite report</ref> Against this backdrop, some Air Force officials began considering an "interim" strike capability such as "regional bombers" to complement the existing fleet of strategic bombers while the service and the DoD explored ideas and timelines for a longer term replacement program.<ref name=RL34406_bomber>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Long_arm>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="CSBA">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Design and developmentEdit
In 2001, Lockheed Martin began internal studies on the feasibility of the FB-22 as the company sought to leverage the design and capabilities of the F-22 Raptor, the result of the Advanced Tactical Fighter program. The studies primarily focused on the ability to survive and perform bombing missions (i.e. air interdiction) in contested environments, in both day and night, against increasingly capable air defense systems and adversary fighter aircraft. Furthermore, experience gleaned from Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan also demonstrated the value of a bomber that could reach targets quickly and remain in theatre in the absence of surface-to-air missiles. The F-22, while designed as an air superiority fighter, embodied some degree of air-to-ground attack ability through precision strikes with Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM), with further strike capability improvements planned with upgrades. Though initially unsolicited, the studies attracted the attention of several Air Force leaders, including Secretary of the Air Force James Roche in 2002.<ref name=Roche>Template:Cite news</ref>
One primary objective of the internal studies was to exploit and further expand upon the F-22's high speed air-to-ground capability while keeping costs to a minimum. To this end, the company devised several concepts that saw significant structural redesigns with respect to the fuselage and wings, while retaining much of the F-22's mission system avionics. With an early design later designated FB-22-1, Lockheed Martin lengthened and widened the fuselage to increase the internal weapons load; another design, the FB-22-2, had a stretched mid-fuselage for increased main bay capacity and featured an enlarged delta wing with greater leading edge sweep angle while the horizontal tails (stabilators) were removed. However, it was later found that doing so would have incurred a cost penalty of 25–30% in weight, materials and development. Instead, the company subsequently focused on leaving the fuselage intact as much as possible while enlarging the diamond-like delta wing with the same sweep angles as the F-22.<ref name=Raptor_as_bomber/><ref name=Refine>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Several proposals in this vein were investigated. The FB-22-3 used the stock fuselage with enlarged delta wings and no stabilators, while the FB-22-4 was similar to -3 but with maximal wing whose leading edge met with the upper edge of the caret inlet. The FB-22-4's maximal wing, which was around three times that of the F-22, enabled the storage of a much larger quantity of weapons and fuel. In addition, as a stealth bomber, the FB-22 was designed to carry weapons externally while maintaining stealth with the assistance of detachable and faceted pods dubbed "wing weapons bay"; previously, an aircraft could only remain stealthy if it carried its weapons internally.<ref name=Raptor_as_bomber/> Various figures give the payload of the FB-22 to be 30 to 35 Small Diameter Bombs; this is compared to the F-22's payload of eight of such Template:Convert weapons. The main weapon bay doors would also be bulged to allow internal carriage of Template:Convert bombs in the fuselage. By employing the wing weapons bay, the FB-22 was designed to be able to carry bombs up to Template:Convert in size such as the GBU-37 GPS-Aided Munition (GAM) or two 2,000-pound bombs in tandem. With stealth, the aircraft's maximum combat load was to have been Template:Convert; without stealth, Template:Convert.<ref name=Roche/><ref name=Raptor_as_bomber/>
Combat radius was almost tripled from Template:Convert to more than Template:Convert, which could have been extended further by the use of external fuel tanks. This range capability placed the aircraft in the category of a regional bomber, comparable to that of the F-111, as it was intended to replace the F-15E Strike Eagle and take over some of the missions of the B-1 and B-2. With the FB-22's greatly increased range and endurance, Lockheed Martin also extended the forward fuselage by Template:Convert to accommodate a second pilot in order to reduce workload and also act as a weapon systems officer (WSO).<ref name=Roche/><ref name=Knight_Ridder>Template:Cite news</ref> According to Air Force Magazine, the combination of range and payload of the FB-22 would have given the concept a comparable effectiveness to that of the B-2 armed with 2,000-lb bombs.<ref name=Long_arm/> The design was to still use the Pratt & Whitney F119 engines but modified for more power and optimized for subsonic efficiency rather than supercruise.Template:Refn While some FB-22 concepts featured no tailplanes (using research originally under the X-44 MANTA program), most design proposals incorporated twin tailplanes and likely would have fixed axisymmetric engine nozzles as opposed to the thrust vectoring nozzles on the F-22.<ref name="Miller_p76-7">Template:Cite book</ref> Though not designed for supercruise, the FB-22 would be capable of supersonic dash using afterburners. Projected maximum speed varied depending on the variant; faster versions such as the FB-22-2 would have had a top speed of Mach 1.92, while the FB-22-4 with maximal wing area would have topped out at around Mach 1.5.<ref name=Refine/> Because the aircraft was to emphasize air-to-ground capability while maintaining stealth characteristics, the FB-22 would have lacked the F-22's dogfighting capability although it could carry AIM-9 Sidewinders and AIM-120 AMRAAMs for self-defense against fighters.<ref name=Long_arm/>
One aspect that arose during the early stages of the design process was the consideration that Boeing would be responsible for the final assembly of the aircraft. At the time, Lockheed Martin was making the mid-fuselage at its plant in Fort Worth, Texas, while assembling the F-22 in Marietta, Georgia. However, since Boeing was responsible for the manufacturing of parts of the fuselage and more crucially, the wings—as well as integrating the avionics—it was considered prudent to give final assembly to Boeing in Seattle, Washington.<ref name=Knight_Ridder/> Other than the wings, the aircraft would have retained much of the design of the F-22. This included 80% of the avionics, software, and flight controls. This commonality would have also significantly reduced the costs of software integration.<ref name=Roche/>
In February 2003, during a session with the House Committee on Armed Services, Air Force Secretary James Roche said that he envisioned a force of 150 FB-22s would equip the service.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2004, Lockheed Martin officially presented the FB-22 to the Air Force to meet its requirement for a potential strategic bomber as an interim solution to become operational by 2018.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Because of the work already done on the F-22, the cost of developing the FB-22 was estimated to be as low as 25% of developing a new bomber,<ref name=Raptor_as_bomber/> with development expected to be US$5–7 billion (2002 dollars, ~$Template:Format price–Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year), including the airframe development cost of US$1 billion (2003 dollars, ~$Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year).<ref name=Knight_Ridder/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It was later revealed that six different versions of the bomber were submitted, as targets, payload and range had yet to be defined.<ref name=Raptor_as_bomber>Template:Cite journal</ref> However, the FB-22 in its planned form was canceled in the wake of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review and subsequent developments as the Department of Defense favored a new strategic bomber with much greater range that would enter service in 2018.<ref name="QDR_2006">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Air Force would subsequently embark on the Next-Generation Bomber program to fulfill this goal, although the program was later re-scoped and became the Long Range Strike Bomber program resulting in the B-21 Raider.<ref name="crs-report">Template:Cite report</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="APUnveiling">Template:Cite news</ref>
Specifications (FB-22-4, proposed)Edit
See alsoEdit
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ReferencesEdit
NotesEdit
CitationsEdit
External linksEdit
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