The air chief hinted he and other service leaders are mulling an accelerated acquisition plan for the next-generation bomber platform similar to the 1970s approach that led the Air Force to purchase F-16 aircraft. Air Force brass feel such a strategy could allow them to field a new bomber sooner than a Pentagon-mandated 2018 benchmark, Moseley said March 7 during a brief interview.

“I'm willing to look at some creative ways to give [industry] an amount of money and say, ‘You guys come back in X number of months and see what we got.' Let's fly these babies off and see what we end up with,” Moseley said following testimony before the House Appropriations military quality of life and Veterans Affairs subcommittee.

The Air Force is in the early stages of what likely will be a multibillion-dollar effort to develop a new long-range bomber in response to a direction in the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review to field a new platform by 2018. In his comments this week, however, Moseley hinted senior Air Force officials are mulling ways to put a new bomber in the air before that much-discussed benchmark.

“2018 is a mark on a wall,” the air chief said. Moseley told ITAF that he and service Secretary Michael Wynne “have some ideas that we're going to play with and chat with some folks to see if there's not some way to jump-start that.”

Air Force officials might soon engage with industry “by asking them some questions about what they think they can do,” he said. Though such queries often are made by the services in the form or requests for proposals or information, the four-star said those questions could be asked in a more informal manner.

He used the development program that led the air service to purchase the Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter as an example. According to Moseley, the Air Force at that time issued such a solicitation to industry, gave competitors a time frame under which to respond and then held a fly-off between General Dynamic's F-16 design -- which later went to Lockheed Martin when GD sold its aircraft manufacturing business -- and Northrop Grumman's F-17 aircraft.

“The department went out to General Dynamics and Northrop, said, ‘Here's X amount of money, you guys come back in 30-something months, tell us what you've got and we'll fly it off,'” Moseley said. “They did it . . . we flew it off, took the F-16 and look how successful it's been.”

Though the lengthy RFI-RFP-contract award process is a more-traditional means of identifying a list of potential solutions and eventually buying a platform, the four-star called such an accelerated acquisition approach “an exciting way to do it.”

An accelerated strategy “gets people in the game, that gets people building things,” he told ITAF. “And you fly ‘em off and you get to actually compete” the actual airframes “and you take the best of breed.”

ITAF reported earlier this year that the Pentagon, as part of the 2005 QDR, had opted to terminate the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems program (ITAF, Jan. 13, p1). Since then , Air Force and Pentagon officials have said the air service plans to lean heavily on lessons gleaned from its J-UCAS work as it begins developing a new long-range bomber. Top uniformed Air Force officials have said the service is mulling whether the new effort will be composed of a family of aircraft or a single plane -- as well as the possibility that the new bomber might be unmanned.

To that end, Air Force officials expect to launch a broad study this year that will articulate a list of requirements for a next-generation long-range strike program. The study will be the service's first step as it transitions technical lessons gleaned from the J-UCAS program into the new effort (ITAF, Feb. 10, p1).

The 2005 QDR, delivered to Congress Feb. 6, directed the Air Force to end its J-UCAS program and begin work to field the new long-range strike platform by 2018. The Navy, meanwhile, plans to continue moving forward with plans for its half of the unmanned vehicle program.

Asked by ITAF to pinpoint his top requirement for the futuristic bomber platform, Moseley said the new aircraft “has got to have range and persistence, but it's got to be survivable.”

Though the ability to fly long distances before releasing its payload will be a key requirement for the new bomber, “just getting there is not the full equation,” Moseley said. “You've got to be able to survive [an enemy's] threat array. You've got to be able to orchestrate yourself with the rest of the systems,” he added, “Whether they're space or they're other air-breathing” platforms.