LOCKHEED MARTIN PLANNING TWO DECADES INTO THE FUTURE AVIATION GIANT OFFERS PENTAGON CONCEPT FOR THE B-2'S REPLACEMENT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin presented to the Pentagon four concepts, including a new stealth bomber and a rocket-launched glider, as possible temporary successors to the B-2 stealth bomber in the next two decades.

The Air Force is looking for a long-range weapon that could be fielded by 2015 and would fit in between the B-2's retirement and whatever bomber or other weapon replaces it around 2035 or 2037.

``It's being looked at as a way you can bring a lot of capability for low cost,'' Lockheed Martin executive John E. Perrigo said.

Lockheed Martin's proposals included a bomber derivative of the new F/A-22 fighter. The proposed FB-22 would have new delta-shaped wings and carry 30 250-pound precision-guided bombs.

Other concepts include fitting long-range missiles to the company's C- 130J transport, building a new stealthy flying-wing aircraft that could carry 40 bombs, and constructing a glider to be launched from a long-range missile.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Palmdale was involved in the development of all four concepts, said Perrigo, the company's business development program manager for the FB-22 in Fort Worth, Texas.

``We reached into the Palmdale area for all of the concepts because they have the design capability,'' Perrigo said. ``If one option were chosen, significant portions of the work would be done in Palmdale because of the design and prototyping capability.''

The Air Force asked that the proposals be based on the ``art of the possible,'' able to be built with existing technology or advances that will exist in the near future.

Development of the FB-22 bomber would be aided by the work already done for the F/A-22, including software development.

``The FB-22 is not tremendously challenging,'' Perrigo said. ``We're adding new wings and essentially keeping the body of the aircraft intact.''

The idea of the FB-22 goes back to at least 2001 and has supporters in the Air Force, including James Roche, who will be stepping down as Air Force secretary in January. Air Force supporters believe the FB-22 could provide both speed and stealth to the bomber role.

Work on that idea is already being done for the United Kingdom's Future Offensive Air System, an effort to replace that nation's Tornado GR4 aircraft in the 2018-20 time frame.

One of the concepts offered actually stems from a Pentagon project called Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S., or FALCON for short.

The ultimate goal of the FALCON program is to develop an aircraft capable of flying at least 3,500 mph - more than 1,000 mph faster than the current record holder - and able to carry 12,000 pounds of cruise missiles or small-diameter bombs.

However, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for a more immediate capability in which the missile-launched glider, with a range of 3,000 miles, could put 1,000 pounds of munitions on a target.

That concept is the least technically mature of the concepts offered by Lockheed Martin. The earliest such an aircraft probably could be fielded is 2018.

The other concepts could be done by 2015, Perrigo said.

Other defense contractors also provided multiple concepts to the Air Force. Among the concepts was the proposal by Northrop Grumman to dramatically improve the B-2 fleet, most notably in the area of its computers and electronics, and a concept from Boeing to modify B-1Bs with new engines and weapons capabilities.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com