More upgrades for the 52.

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Model citizen, Zero discipline
Upgrades point B-52 to the distant horizon
After more than a half-century of service by the remaining Boeing-built B-52s, the Air Force believes the fleet can keep going for decades to come.

By W.J. Hennigan

Los Angeles Times





U.S. AIR FORCE / GETTY IMAGES


A B-52G Stratofortress is armed with air-launched cruise missiles in this undated photo. The Air Force is spending $12 billion on engineering and technical work to bring the Stratofortress fleet into the 21st century

For Air Force Capt. Daniel “Swoop” Welch, flying a B-52 bomber has become the family business.

His father, retired Lt. Col. Don Welch, was trained to drop nuclear bombs with the aircraft during the Cold War. His grandfather, retired Col. Don Sprague, flew B-52 combat missions in Vietnam.

“It is definitely a testament to the robust design of the B-52,” said Welch, 28. “Getting to fly the same aircraft as my father and grandfather has been pretty cool.”

Despite the bomber’s more than half-century of service, the Air Force believes modifications and overhauls have made the B-52 ageless. Now engineers and technicians are working on a contract worth up to $11.9 billion for upgrades to bring the B-52 Stratofortress fleet into the 21st century.

The plane’s computers are only as powerful as the original PCs in the early 1980s. Bombing-mission information has to be uploaded before a flight. It can’t be changed in the air — even if the target on the ground changes.

Now Boeing is expanding the bombers’ limited capabilities by providing an upgraded communications system so aircrews can send and receive information via satellite links.

This enables the B-52’s five-person crews to change mission plans, re-target weapons in flight and interact better with ground forces and other aircraft.

Nobody can say for sure how many of the government’s 76 B-52s — down from 744 in the plane’s heyday — will survive three more decades. The most recent variant of the plane, built between 1960 and 1962, has undergone more than 30 major modifications.

Although the revisions have maintained the 185-foot wingspan and a length of nearly 160 feet, the guts of the B-52 have been continually revamped. For example, the World War II-era tail-gunner position has been removed, and new electronics have been installed.

Now the plane, which was designed by three Boeing workers on the back of a napkin during a weekend in 1948, is getting digital display screens, computer network servers and real-time communication uplinks.

“It’s like taking your grandmother’s old rotary phone and giving her the latest, greatest smartphone,” said Col. John Johnson, chief of the Air Force Global Strike Command’s bomber-requirements division.

The B-52 was developed during the Korean War. It carpet-bombed during the Vietnam War. It ran crucial missions in Kosovo and the Middle East, and military strategists aim to keep it flying until at least 2040.

It’s still a lumbering aircraft, but with new engines and technology. Built to carry nuclear weapons, it now drops GPS-guided smart bombs and bunker-busting munitions.

No other warplane in U.S. military history has been operational as long as the B-52. Other sophisticated aircraft have come and gone, but the relatively low-tech B-52 has remained in the U.S. arsenal. It represents nearly half of all bombers in the fleet.

While the Pentagon struggles to rein in spending and cost overruns on programs such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in development, it must rely on proven war horses like the B-52.

Several bombers were developed to replace the B-52 in the last six decades, but not one matched its affordability and versatility. Many of the programs were canceled or cut short because of political and budget pressures.

The B-52 has remained. With its iconic shape and vast power, the bomber has also found its way into pop culture as the name for a Kahlua-infused cocktail, a beehive hairdo for women in the 1960s and a New Wave rock band in the 1970s.

Although some military analysts say the B-52 fleet is so old that there are planes in danger of falling apart, the Air Force has poured billions into modernizing the fleet, and Boeing says the plane could fly well into its 100th year.

Military makeovers have become common. Boeing, like other companies that were once focused on churning out new aircraft, has found researching and developing new advanced parts for aging planes to be a lucrative business.

Hundreds of engineers across Southern California are working at places such as Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin on upgrades to aging warplanes.

Michael A. Miller, a Congressional Research Service analyst, wrote this year that a potential problem with sustaining a fleet of aging bombers is a shrinking inventory of parts and supplies that are no longer made, difficult to find or costly to remake.

“Without sufficient sustainment and modernization funding, many analysts argue the U.S. bomber fleet will quickly become a decrepit force ill-suited to the potential challenges posed by 21st-century adversaries,” Miller said.

“A question to be answered is whether the defense industrial base will even be capable of meeting the sustainment requirements of America’s legacy bomber force out to 2040,” he said.

Because of the wear and tear on the aircraft from the demands of military flight, made worse by 11 years of continuous combat in the Middle East, the aging airframe structures need reinforcement, engines need to be replaced, and computer and electronic components need upgrading, Miller said.

But with all the upgrades, the Pentagon and Boeing insist the B-52s are more capable than ever. It is the only bomber in the U.S. arsenal capable of dropping conventional and nuclear weapons as well as deploying long-range cruise missiles.

The Air Force has 63 B-1 Lancer bombers, which can do supersonic and low-level flight, and 20 B-2 Spirits, a stealthy bat-winged bomber that became fully operational in late 2003.

On the drawing board is the “Long-Range Strike Bomber.” But even if that program does move forward, flight-testing would not start until the mid-2020s.

Capt. Brandon Fischer, 30, a B-52 pilot at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, said that although a new bomber might be coming, the B-52 will still be flying high.

“It’s remarkable to think that you’re sitting in the same aircraft that was likely carrying nuclear bombs at some point during the Cold War,” he said. “With all the improvements that are coming, it’ll fly for another 30 years.”

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Think it's always been stated that the BUFF would be around for awhile, but it still incredible how versatile this plane actually is, and continues to be.

Great to see that it has a promising future, deep into the 21st century!
Honored they are in my back yard @ KBAD!
 
It would be awesome to see an aircraft type make 100 years of active service. The KC-135 isn't very far behind the BUFF age-wise as well. It's definitely a tribute to Boeing that their aircraft have remained viable for so long.
 
There was an unsolicited proposal a decade ago to re-engine them to four high bypass engines to save fuel. Never got much traction after submittal though.
 
061127-F-1234S-026.jpg
 
Somebody told me the re-engine plan was to use 757 engines and those would be maintained by an airline....American I think. No idea if this was true, but it sounded interesting.
 
Over the past few weeks, I've seen 3 BUFF's sitting on the old alert ramp at KBAD, with their rudder fins totally removed. Not sure if its an inspection thing or some type of mod they're doing, but they look strange sitting out there without them.

Also, unsure if this story had any Merritt to it, but I had heard that the engines were going to be swapped, but after testing, the engines were hanging lower to the ground than they expected and they canceled the update.
Not knowledgable in engines, but I wanna say they were GE engines that are/were used on the 767's!?!?

But, ill let someone here that actually knows something about it, chime in.

Cool pic, Hack!
 
Also, unsure if this story had any Merritt to it, but I had heard that the engines were going to be swapped, but after testing, the engines were hanging lower to the ground than they expected and they canceled the update.

It actually had to do with comparative cost of the re-engine program and engine part procurement over the projected lifetime compared to the huge number of TF-33/JT3D engines remaining after the C-141s went to the boneyard and the C-135 fleet was re-engined with the CFM56. That left a ton of spare engines and spare parts in inventory that the AF all ready owned, and apparently that made the cost difference.

Not knowledgable in engines, but I wanna say they were GE engines that are/were used on the 767's!?!

They were planning on using the CFM56, just like in the C-135 re-engine program.
 
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