Drive To Keep B-52 Flying For 100 Years Stalls On Engine And Radar Woes

A $21 cardinal Air Force effort managed by Boeing Co. to upgrade nan engines, radar and communications of nan iconic B-52 bomber is seeing costs maturation and delays during early development, according to a congressionally mandated audit.

Ten of 13 upgrade projects for nan aircraft, which was first introduced complete 70 years ago, are “experiencing cost, schedule aliases capacity challenges,” according to a Government Accountability Office study released Friday. That includes a important Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc motor upgrade and a awesome radar project, some of which are facing each 3 issues.

There are 76 B-52s flying coming of nan 744 produced and it’s “significantly outlived its original lifespan,” said GAO. The bomber first entered work successful 1955. The Air Force effort is focused connected cardinal improvements “in portion to let nan craft to run done nan 2050s” successful tandem pinch B-2 and B-21 stealth bombers.

The delays and overruns underscore nan Trump administration’s situation successful speeding weapons updates and procurement, peculiarly astatine a clip erstwhile operations successful nan Middle East are straining US stockpiles. B-52s person been flying Iran missions since March.

The workhorse B-52 — nicknamed BUFF, for “Big Ugly Fat Fellow” — tin alert 8,800 miles without refueling, behaviour accepted and atomic bombing missions and transportation 70,000 pounds of ordnance. The bomber payload includes atomic aliases conventionally equipped cruise missiles arsenic good arsenic GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition, aliases JDAM, bombs.

The F130-200 motor programme — nan costliest effort — “will apt proceed to look important challenges arsenic nan Air Force plans to statesman production” later this decade “with small aliases nary developmental formation testing,” portending much delays and costs overruns arsenic problems are found, GAO assessed. Rolls-Royce is building and testing nan F130 engines astatine its Indianapolis plant.

The Air Force’s costs estimate of nan motor upgrade’s improvement shape has risen to astir $15 cardinal from $11 cardinal successful 2018, and since 2023 its first operational capacity has been delayed by different 15 months, to 2033, aliases 5 years precocious to nan original target, according to GAO’s analysis.

The costs summation prompted nan Air Force to initiate an affordability study that GAO says is ongoing arsenic of March.

The motor effort faces risks of “compounding schedule delays, and accrued costs mostly owed to” a believe called “concurrency — aliases nan overlap betwixt improvement testing and starting production,” said GAO. That overlap often leads to costs and schedule maturation aft testing discloses flaws that require creation changes, it said.

Air Force officials told GAO they “recognize their attack presents risks but are consenting to presume those risks, successful bid to debar further delays successful nan schedule,” according to nan report.

Once accumulation begins, nan work plans to bid betwixt 600 and 650 engines from Rolls-Royce and bid craft subsystems specified arsenic cockpit integer displays and wide integration activity from Boeing.

The Air Force announced successful May that nan motor has completed a general Critical Design Review. That’s a associated effort by Boeing, Rolls-Royce, and nan Air Force meant to “enable nan B-52J to stay successful nan conflict for early generations,” said motor programme head Lieutenant Colonel Tim Cleaver, who called it “a pivotal infinitesimal for nan program.”

Capaccio writes for Bloomberg.