The US Air Force is pulling forward critical elements of its conventional-mission upgrade for the Rockwell B-1B bomber, to allow it to deploy the aircraft in the role earlier than originally anticipated.
The fast-track plan involves the inegration of the Raytheon-made ALE-50 towed-decoy system (TDS) and the McDonnell Douglas Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), both of which will now be available by December 1998, rather than in 1999.
Howard Chambers, Boeing North America B-1B programme manager, says: "We should have seven aircraft in the field by the last quarter of 1998, with towed decoys on B-1Bs at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, and we're accelerating JDAM to go with it."
To meet the revised December 1998 target, the TDS is being speeded up by six months and the JDAM by 15 months. Installation by the USAF will begin in May 1998 and run to February 1999.
Flight testing of the TDS started at Edwards AFB, California, on 1 April and, so far, has "-successfully demonstrated all tests for aerodynamic performance through Mach 1, so it is cleared from a physical point of view", says Chambers.
Electronic-countermeasures performance tests have begun and are due to be completed by the first quarter of 1998.
The TDS is housed in a blister fairing mounted on the empennage below the horizontal stabiliser. Each blister houses four modified ALE-50 radio-frequency-repeater decoys, paired in two launcher canisters.
The JDAM upgrade will give the aircraft the capability of carrying up to eight 900kg GBU-31(V)1 fragmentation or -31(V)3 penetrator guided bombs.
The TDS and JDAM form part of the Block D element of the conventional mission update, which also includes installation of a global-positioning system and upgraded communications, as well as a 1760 weapons databus to handle the JDAMs. Block C, which gave the B-1B the capability of carrying CBU-87/89 and -97 cluster-bomb units, is now operational.
The Block E package, which is due to enter service in 2002, is focused on a computer and software upgrade which will provide the architecture and flexibility to carry up to three different weapons (a different type in each bay) per single sortie with a single mission-software tape. Three typical weapons would include the Mk82, the JDAM and Lockheed Martin wind-corrected munition dispenser (WCMD).
The Block E upgrade will also include extending capability to include the Texas Instruments Joint Stand-off Weapon(JSOW) and the Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM). The new computers and the WCMD, an inertially guided tailkit for CBU-87/89 and -97 weapons, with the CBU-103/104 and 105 as options, are due to enter flight test in 2000. An initial operational capability with both weapons is due by the first quarter of 2002. The B-1B will be deployed with the JSOW and JASSM six months later, says the plan.o
Source: Flight International
