Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz and Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley have reportedly called for a new bomber to be added to the fleet.  The goal would be for it to work in a variety of regimes (asymmetric to conventional to nuclear) and the aircraft would be “optionally manned.”

The Air Force currently relies on a very small number of B-2s, an ever-aging number of B-52s, and the B-1.