Orel escribió:Sin bases cercanas no hay tankers, ni medios ISR, ni EW ni nada por lo que la aviación táctica (incluyendo los quintas) tiene un problema importante.
Por supuesto.
Que no invalida lo otro que comentamos del uso de cazas cuarta como arsenal planes (y al menos un par de misiles de crucero sí puede llevar cada uno para stand-off
).
Pero es que un cuarta no es ni será un arsenal plane para la USAF xD
Los arsenal plane que se plantean son aviones de carga como C-17 o C-130 con decenas de municiones de crucero. O incluso algo nuevo...
The CMCA, and a host of other arsenal plane proposals, including past ideas to use airlifters as weapon trucks, have all failed to come to fruition. In November 2019, the Air Force said it was again looking into the "arsenal plane" concept, but that it could select a bomber already in service and adapt it to the mission.
However, "the arsenal plane concept is probably better described as more of a clean-sheet approach to a platform that can affordably and rapidly fill the gap for long-range strike capabilities, and to go down more innovative paths," Air Force General Timothy Ray, head of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), which oversees the service's bomber fleets, said during Defense Writers Group telephone conference earlier this month. Many took this to imply he was interested in an all-new aircraft design, but it could also point to the development of a new munitions employment concept, such as a palletized munitions system.
All told, the idea of being able to convert airlifters, at will, into low-cost stand-off strike platforms seems as attractive as ever. In addition, the costs associated with advanced, stealthy aircraft, such as the forthcoming B-21 Raider stealth bomber, that are actually capable of penetrating deep into denied areas littered with air defenses are only set to increase as time goes on. In order to be able to avoid losing any overall capacity to launch mass stand-off strikes from the air, having a lower-end companion will only become more and more essential.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... to-bombersDe ahí el desarrollo de misiles de crucero baratos como el Gray Wolf, sistemas de lanzamiento paletizados como el CLEAVER para ser usados en masa desde aviones de carga a falta de bombarderos.
“This successful (demo) is evidence of our commitment to evolve innovative weapons concepts and enhance our partnership with AFSOC to meet the needs of the National Defense Strategy,” said Col. Garry Haase, director of AFRL’s Munitions Directorate. “CLEAVER represents a different approach to launching large numbers of long-range weapons, which will bring a new dynamic to the high-end fight.”
The employment of these weapons directly advances the Air Force palletized munition experimentation effort, an innovative concept in which a multi-engine platform carrying large quantities of network-enabled, semi-autonomous weapons accompanies remotely piloted aircraft and fighter jets in combat missions.
Y el famoso estudio lo que dice y es más cuestionable, es que los Arsenal Plane no merecen la pena.