DAYTON, Ohio – The Air Force is modifying a B-52H bomber to resume testing the Radar Modernization Program (RMP), which will feature an active electronically scanned array radar system based on RTX’s APG-79 to replace the bomber’s Northrop Grumman APQ-166.
The dual-capable B-52 bomber delivers the Long Range Standoff cruise missile, which carries the W80-4 warhead. The National Nuclear Security Administration is refurbishing the W80-4 warhead through a life extension program.
The Air Force’s fleet now has 75 B-52Hs after a bomber crashed June 15 while testing the new radar during take-off from Edwards AFB, Calif. The crash killed all eight crew members, as well as the pilot, who was a Boeing employee and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and the weapons systems officer, who was a colonel in the Air Force Reserves that worked at Boeing.
The last Boeing-built B-52H fielded in October 1962, and, while the Air Force looks to field 100 or more Northrop Grumman B-21 stealth bombers to replace the service’s B-1s and B-2s, the future path for the B-52 is under consideration, including a possible refurbishment and reactivation of some of the B-52s at the Air Force “boneyard” at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., Col. Timothy Spaulding, the program acquisition executive (PAE) for bombers, told reporters here at the annual Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC) life cycle industry days.
The PAE for bombers has about 1,100 personnel at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and Tinker AFB, Okla.
“We can and have looked at bringing B-52s out of Arizona,” Spaulding said on Monday. “That’s not necessarily an easy thing to do, and there are some limitations on how far you may go with that number so I’ll leave that as an open maybe.”
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.