The Air Force contract to build more than 600 new commercial engines to power the aging, nuclear-capable B-52 bomber through the 2050s will run 17 years, with six years of firm money, according to a solicitation released Tuesday.
The service’s Commercial Engine Replacement Program calls for 608 new commercial engines, plus additional spare engines and other support equipment and data. The six-year base period begins in 2021, followed by a five-year option period and six one-year options that could run the contract out to 2035.
United Technologies’ Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, and GE Aviation are all in on the lucrative contract. Pratt & Whitney is pitching its PW815 engine to replace the B-52’s current P&W-made TF33-PW-103s. Rolls-Royce will submit its F130 engine for the competition, while GE Aviation will offer two engines: the CF34-10 and the Passport.
Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, is serving as sole-source integrator for a wide array of B-52 modernization efforts in the works, to include a new radar, internal weapons bay upgrades, communications network and various electronics upgrades.
The Air Force has 87 B-52H bombers, of which fewer than half are nuclear capable. All 20 newer B-2A bombers are nuclear capable. The B-21 Raider, being developed by Northrop Grumman, will eventually be the only nuclear-capable bomber in the U.S. fleet.
The nonprofit Federation of American Scientists estimates that B-52H bombers have not carried nuclear gravity bombs since at least 2010, as the aging aircraft can no longer survive against modern air defenses.
But for now, the B-52H will remain in service, carrying the Boeing-made, 1980s-vintage AGM-86B air-launched nuclear cruise missile and then its successor, the Long-Range Standoff Weapon being developed by Raytheon. The new missile will use W80-4 warheads provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Air Force requested $299.4 million in research, development, test, and engineering funds for the B-52 re-engine program in the fiscal 2021 presidential budget request released in February.
The service has budgeted nearly $1.3 billion for the program across the five-year Future Years Budget Plan, according to service documents. The Air Force has spent about $235 million over the past two fiscal years on the Commercial Engine Replacement Program, and expects to spend $7 billion to $8 billion over the program’s lifetime, officials have previously said.
