US Air Force’s ‘Golden Horde’ swarming munitions program to get second chance February 4 Four Collaborative Small Diameter Bombs, or CSDBs, hang from the wing of an F-16 Fighting Falcon from the Air Force Test Center’s 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., Nov. 14, 2020. Two of the bombs were dropped during the first flight demonstration of the Air Force Golden Horde Vanguard program. WASHINGTON Now that the U.S. Air Force’s first test of “Golden Horde” swarming bombs was deemed a partial success, the service is giving the technology a second shot later this month, the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory said Thursday.
The two planes will need to be tested and flown before more are built.
The U.S. Air Force (USAF) is moving rapidly along with the construction of its first two B-21 Raiders, as the next-generation stealth bomber inches ever closer to full-scale serial production.
According to senior Air Force officials, the first B-21 Raider will be completed in early 2022 and undertake its maiden flight later that year. The USAF initially stated that the maiden flight would occur by December 2021, but Randall Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, says that this earlier estimate was always a best-case scenario. Meanwhile, the second B-21 is taking shape: it’s “really starting to look like a bomber,” said Walden in an interview with Air Force Magazine. “The second one is really more about structures, and the overall structural capability,” he added. “We’ll go in and bend it, we’ll test it to its limits, make sure that the design and the manufacturing and the pr
The exercise of being able to rapidly deploy a lot of stealth fighters sends a clear message.
Key point: Rapid depoyment during a crisis or war makes a difference in victory. This is why the Air Force practices such exercises.
On Nov. 19, 2018, two U.S. Air Force wings in Utah launched thirty-five F-35 stealth fighters in a short span of time.
This article first appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest.
The air force lauded the display as evidence of America s overwhelming military might. At least one critic dismissed it as a publicity stunt.
In fact, there s one region where mass-takeoffs are an important military procedure: the Korean Peninsula. Ironically, that s the one region where the Trump administration is deliberately limiting the flying branch s authority to organize large-scale warplane-launches.
The three legs of the triad, including intercontinental ballistic missiles and ballistic-launching nuclear submarines, are operating “decades beyond their design life,” Lt. Gen. James C. Dawkins Jr., the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, told a recent online discussion sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, while rivals such as China and Russia press ahead with major modernization plans.
“Nuclear threats to our nation are increasing,” Gen. Dawkins said. “We must have the ability to respond appropriately.”
The AGM-86B cruise missile has been in service since 1982 and is due to be retired in 2030.
Its anticipated replacement, the long-range standoff weapon, is a subsonic missile with a range of at least 1,500 miles and advanced stealth features designed to make it more survivable against enemy air defense systems, officials said.