3/20/2023 0 Comments B2 spirit cockpit![]() ![]() The LRSO will replace the Air Launched Cruise Missile, or ALCM, which right now is only carried by the B-52 bomber, officials said.Īlongside its nuclear arsenal, the B-2 will carry a wide range of conventional weapons to include precision-guided 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs, 5,000-pound JDAMs, Joint Standoff Weapons, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles and GBU 28 5,000-pound bunker buster weapons, among others. ![]() In addition to the LRSO, B83 and B-61 Mod 12, the B-2 will also carry the B-61 Mod 11, a nuclear weapon designed with penetration capabilities, Air Force officials said. The B-61 Mod 12 is being engineered to rely on an inertial measurement unit for navigation. The B-61 Mod 12 is an ongoing modernization program which seeks to integrate the B-61 Mods 3, 4, 7 and 10 into a single variant with a guided tail kit. The comprehensive B-2 upgrades also include efforts to outfit the attack aircraft with next generation digital nuclear weapons such as the B-61 Mod 12 with a tail kit and Long Range Stand-Off weapon or, LRSO, an air-launched, guided nuclear cruise missile, service officials said. The overall flight management control processor effort, slated to field by 20, is expected to cost $542 million. The new processor increases the performance of the avionics and on-board computer systems by about 1,000-times, he added. This results in the laying-in of some new fiber optic cable as opposed to the mix bus cable being used right now – because the B-2’s computers from the 80s are getting maxed out and overloaded with data, Air Force officials told Scout Warrior. This involves the re-hosting of the flight management control processors, the brains of the airplane, onto much more capable integrated processing units. The B-2 is also being engineered with a new flight management control processor designed to expand and modernize the on-board computers and enable the addition of new software. That being said, emerging technology may soon allow platforms like the B-2 to receive real-time video feeds from nearby drones in the air. Information from nearby drones, however, would at the moment most likely need to first transmit through a ground control station. Michelson explained that the B-2 is capable of communicating with ground control stations, command and control headquarters and is also able to receive information from other manned and unmanned assets such as drones. The stealth aircraft uses a commonly deployed data link called LINK-16 and both UHF and VHF data links, as well. We are excited about this upgrade,” Mickelson explained. It will provide a very big increase in the bandwidth available for the B-2, which means an increased speed of data flow. ![]() “This program will help with nuclear and conventional communications. For instance, the communications upgrade could make it possible for the aircraft crew to receive bombing instructions from the President in the unlikely event of a nuclear detonation. The B-2 is also moving to an extremely high frequency satellite in order to better facilitate communications with command and control. “The whole key is to give us better situational awareness so we are able to make sound decisions in the cockpit about where we need to put the aircraft,” he added. ![]() The Defensive Management System is slated to be operational by the mid-2020s, Mickelson added. As a result, if there are emerging air defenses equipped with the technology sufficient to detect the B-2, the aircraft will have occasion to maneuver in such a way as to stay outside of its range. One of the key upgrades is called the Defensive Management System, a technology which helps inform the B-2 crew about the location of enemy air defenses. ![]()
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