Just to make it clear that I believe in the superiority of offensive doctrine and I think that bombers/aircraft will always be able to accomplish their mission regardless of whether the air defense system is the most advanced. I have never heard of wars being won by those who stayed behind the walls. A bomber/aircraft can have, in addition to stealth, all the offensive and defensive equipment necessary to penetrate air defenses, which is impossible in the case of a more limited aircraft, such as a fighter. There are other ways to carry great conventional firepower over great distances without the help of bombers/aircraft, such as intercontinental hypersonic missiles, which “glide” in the upper atmosphere after falling from a great height. Conventional ICBMs can also be developed. But the flexibility of an aircraft will always be appreciated and the day is far from over when the great powers will stop using them. It turns out that system vs system, even more so in a dense air defense network like the Chinese one, trying to use stealth bombers against the continent hunting mobile launchers is suicide, no one in the DoD should take this optimistic thinking to those who plan operations, because it would mean an unprecedented loss.
Analyzing the radar curve and taking into account the RCS of a B-2 Spirit, we obtain that the detection distance is around 120 NMI (something around 220 km).
It is important to emphasize that the variation in the aircraft's altitude is not being taken into account, but has a lot to do with the distance at which it can be detected, since the lower the altitude, the more difficult it is to detect...
Having this in mind, it is possible to predict that a threat from a B-2 flying at 26,000 feet or approximately 8 km in altitude (which is already a very favorable altitude estimate for the B-2) will be detected more than 200 km away.
Considering a cruise flight of this bomber at Mach 0.8 (980 km/h) and applying a simple rule of three, we can determine that the contact is detected almost 25 minutes before it is over the target, which is more than enough time for the air defense to aim and fire its missiles. However, the B-2 does not need to be “over the target” to be able to attack, using self-propelled standoff weapons or gliders for this purpose…
In the case of an attack using the GBU-39/SDB with a 70 km range, of which the B-2 carries more than 200 at once, discounting the time and distance that the aircraft “saves” in relation to the target due to the 70 km range of the bombs, considering the same speed of 980 km/h, which is equivalent to 4 minutes of flight, the air defense would still have more than 8 minutes to react before the aircraft even enters the range of its bombs.
Of course, this disregards many important details, but the initiative is basically this, even looking for alternative routes to hunt mobile launchers within the continent, any planning error could lead to a catastrophic defeat for the AFGSC. This is exactly why the US is developing and deploying the Dark Eagle, it is a ground-based system capable of deep-striking Chinese targets of opportunity within the continent, preventing the AFGSC from making the mistake of sending bombers to hunt mobile launchers within the Chinese mainland.
Analyzing the radar curve and taking into account the RCS of a B-2 Spirit, we obtain that the detection distance is around 120 NMI (something around 220 km).
It is important to emphasize that the variation in the aircraft's altitude is not being taken into account, but has a lot to do with the distance at which it can be detected, since the lower the altitude, the more difficult it is to detect...
Having this in mind, it is possible to predict that a threat from a B-2 flying at 26,000 feet or approximately 8 km in altitude (which is already a very favorable altitude estimate for the B-2) will be detected more than 200 km away.
Considering a cruise flight of this bomber at Mach 0.8 (980 km/h) and applying a simple rule of three, we can determine that the contact is detected almost 25 minutes before it is over the target, which is more than enough time for the air defense to aim and fire its missiles. However, the B-2 does not need to be “over the target” to be able to attack, using self-propelled standoff weapons or gliders for this purpose…
In the case of an attack using the GBU-39/SDB with a 70 km range, of which the B-2 carries more than 200 at once, discounting the time and distance that the aircraft “saves” in relation to the target due to the 70 km range of the bombs, considering the same speed of 980 km/h, which is equivalent to 4 minutes of flight, the air defense would still have more than 8 minutes to react before the aircraft even enters the range of its bombs.
Of course, this disregards many important details, but the initiative is basically this, even looking for alternative routes to hunt mobile launchers within the continent, any planning error could lead to a catastrophic defeat for the AFGSC. This is exactly why the US is developing and deploying the Dark Eagle, it is a ground-based system capable of deep-striking Chinese targets of opportunity within the continent, preventing the AFGSC from making the mistake of sending bombers to hunt mobile launchers within the Chinese mainland.
