robert arndt wrote:
Again, old news. EADS was quoted as saying that if an airbus design
was selected to be converted over to a heavy bomber akin to the B-52
Stratofortress that its own EFW facility (former Junkers) would
perform the German conversions.

It seems rather unlikely that any Airbus could be converted into a
B-52-style heavy bomber. The bomber is just too optimized for its task, and
it woudl be very hard to put a large bomb bay into a commercial aircraft
(small bays like that in the new MMA wre feasible, but require careful
engineering).

EADS also mentioned using conventional transport aircraft and future
A400M to drop palletized cruise missile launchers.

Yes, I could more easily imagine them doing a missile carrier conversion, as
was proposed for the 747 some years ago, possibly launching Apache or other
stand-off weapons. Possibly they could even use less elaborate weapons like
JDAMs with range extension wing kits for a low-cost option. But they would
have to be very confident in their defense suppression if they planned to
overfly defended airspace at all. This airliner conversion would certainly
be less damage tolerant than a true bomber and probably less able to take
evasive maneuvers. Even the B-52 can be flown pretty aggressively to avoid
SAMs if need be (right BUFDRVR?)

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