"Henry J. Cobb" wrote
There will be a B3 manned heavy bomber.

The mission is not going away.

The big question is will the United States be able to build a bomber
that is a big enough improvement on the B2 to justify the
development
before we run out of heavy bombers?

I think the answer is yes.

The big improvement of the B3 on the B2 is going to be the use of
woven nanotube construction in place of carbon fiber. It will be
larger, stronger and no heavier.

The crew expands to four. They take turns flying to and from the
battlefield and while on station one crewmember flies the bomber
while
the other three operate sensors and UAVs.

The first B3s should enter service in the early 2020s. At a low
level
of production they be able to take over as the primary heavy bomber
in
2037 when the B52s and B1s are falling apart.

There's this problem. Nanotube-stiffened composites have a_long_way to
go before anyone would use them for primary structure. The nanotubes
themselves are gleams in folks eyes and based on carbon fiber
composite experience, there will be a fairly long learning experience
before they are ready for prime time.

It's not plain to me that there_needs_to be an aircraft with much more
payload to structure weight than a B2. Building a B2C with the reduced
maintenance/cost stealth features of the F35 seems more like the way
to go. Even that would require essentially a fresh start procurement
with new subs bidding all the pieces.