The future of the Air Force’s next-generation bomber program hinges on the judgment of a group tasked with re-examining the effort as part of the current Quadrennial Defense Review, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development David Ochmanek told defense reporters Tuesday in Washington, D.C. A “tiger team” has been assembled explicitly to take a new look at the requirements and concepts for a long-range penetrating strike and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance platform, he said. “A manned bomber may or may not be the right answer, but we understand there is a set of operations that needs to be done in the future,” Ochmanek explained. The team is re-examining the nature of the mission as well as opportunities and technologies for accomplishing it and will submit a report to Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the early fall, he said. “The word requirement is a loaded word in the building,” Ochmanek said when asked if the requirement still exists for the future bomber as articulated in the 2006 QDR. He continued, “What I would say is there is a recognition of the importance of being able to locate, characterize, and attack targets in a hostile air defense environment.” Gates in April shelved plans for the Air Force to move forward with a program aimed at fielding the so-called 2018 bomber due to a perceived lack of clarity in the requirements. Ochmanek conceded that one of the criticisms of the QDR so far from the “red team” in a recent meeting was the lack of new concepts for operating against high-end, anti-access adversaries. (For more from Ochmanek’s discussion, read QDR Scrutinizing Two-War Concept and Gloomy Forecast.)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.