STRATCOM chief Gen. Kevin Chilton believes that the current inventory of AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missiles can be modified “as a bridge” to last until about 2030, he said at a Washington conference Wednesday. To replace it, he thinks a follow-on, “single type” cruise missile, likely undertaken in partnership with the Navy, should be developed starting in the mid-2020s. Chilton also said that the B-52’s history—evolving from a high-altitude bomber to a low-altitude bomber and eventually to a standoff bomber—will be the pattern followed by the next long-range strike aircraft. “We ought to think about those things and plan for it in advance,” he said.
The F-47 fighter will be run differently than previous fighter programs and share the same mission systems architecture as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. That means advances in one will fuel advances in the other.