Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
4/24/2015
The Air Force plans to release an RFP for re-engining the B-52 this summer, and is planning to convert some of the planes to tankers, a top service official said this week. “We think we’ll have some data to be able to go forward this summer” with an RFP, Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command said during a Peter Huessy Breakfast Series event April 21. Maintaining 1950s-era engines has become expensive, and the updated engines would provide more reliability and economy. “Today, almost every industry partner has come forward and said they could give us about 35 percent more fuel-efficiency. What that means is I can get about 35 percent more range on the B-52, which is already substantial, which also means I can use about a third less tankers. They can be repurposed to do other things and fill a need that we have for tankers.”
According to testimony submitted by Wilson in advance of a Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing this week, the Air Force plans to begin converting B-52s to conventional-only aircraft in August, with Russian inspections immediately following. The service expects to remove the nuclear capability in 42 B-52s, working toward the aggregate limit of heavy bombers allowed by New START. According to the treaty, the U.S. and Russia are each allowed to maintain 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments. According to an April 1-released State Department fact sheet, the U.S. currently maintains 898 systems in that category, and Russia maintains 890.
The October-released RFI has attracted interest from Rolls-Royce, GE, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney, industry officials told NS&D Monitor. Spokespeople from RR, GE and Boeing have confirmed their responses to the RFI, while a Pratt & Whitney spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied his company had answered the document. Each B-52 flies on eight Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-3/103 turbofan engines. Wilson said AFGSC’s team is working with Air Force Materiel Command, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment & Energy, and the B-52 System Program Office (SPO) and partner Boeing, in hammering out the monetary and operational aspects of the re-engining.
Eight Engines Favored
Currently, eight engines power each B-52. While considerations of halving that number to a more fuel-efficient four-engine solution were discussed, the Air Force settled on an eight-engine variant, whose installation involves fewer modifications than a four-engine system, Wilson said. The Air Force has been considering re-engining the B-52 since “well before” 2004, AFGSC spokesperson Lt. Col. John Sheets wrote in an email this week to NS&D Monitor. A June 2004 Defense Science Board Task Force report found the B-52 to be the most versatile and cost-effective weapon system in the bomber inventory and “re-engining makes it even more so,” it states. Sheets said officials continually stopped the program because of flawed assumptions such as the Air Force getting 132 B-2 bombers, a peace dividend after 1991, and fuel prices staying at less than a dollar. The service ended up procuring 21 B-2s. “I think there’s an operational case, and I think there’s a business case, and we’re trying to get with folks on how we would do that in a public-private partnership to move forward on” re-engining the B-52, Wilson said.
Decision to Move Forward Follows Uncertainty
In October, it seemed less certain that the re-engining would move forward. Wilson told reporters on the sidelines of an Air Force Association event that, while AFGSC was considering the re-engining, “I can’t say I’m going to gain any traction on it.” But he emphasized the cost-efficiency of such a move. “Look at what the airline industry is doing—they’re all re-engining,” Wilson said in October. “Why? Because it saves you a lot of money. If there is a commercially available engine which can give a 25 to 30 percent increase in either range or loiter, you have my attention.” The Air Force plans to fly the B-52 until at least 2040.
Re-Engining Latest in a Series of Mods.
The re-engining follows other B-52 modernization efforts, including upgrading the plane’s weapons bay launcher and adding a new satellite communications system. Wilson said four B-52s have been fitted with the updated SATCOM system, Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT), which will allow crews to get mission updates and detailed re-tasking orders while flying toward targets, essentially converting its mission from strategic to a tactical one. In December, Boeing installed the first prototype of the weapons bay launcher, which enables the B-52 to carry GPS-guided or “smart” weapons, and is expected to reduce fuel consumption by an additional 15 percent. The Fiscal Year 2015 Congressional omnibus spending bill appropriated $175.4 million for B-52s, which got more modification funding than B-1s and B-2s combined.
