In December the Air Force awarded Boeing Defense Systems a more than $2 billion contract to start the first engine replacements on the B-52H Stratofortress, marking a major step forward for the overhaul of the venerable Cold War-era bomber.
In a Dec. 23 contract announcement, the Pentagon stated that the task order for the Commercial Engine Replacement Program, or CERP, requires Boeing to modify a pair of B-52s with new engines and associated subsystems — and then test the aircraft. This will be development and systems integration work intended to take place after the CERP program’s critical design review.
The CERP program is a massive project to extend the lives of the Air Force’s 76 B-52s — already more than six decades old — into at least the 2050s, and perhaps to 2060. If the bombers reach that point, they will have been flying for about a century.
The Air Force eventually wants to have a two-bomber fleet made up of B-52s and at least 100 Northrop Grumman-made stealth B-21 Raiders, in the most sweeping revamp of its bomber force in at least a generation.
The service plans to retire its B-2 Spirit stealth bombers and B-1 Lancers — which are becoming harder and more expensive to maintain — throughout the 2030s.
The B-52 overhaul, expected to cost $48.6 billion in all, will be so extensive that the bombers will be redesignated the B-52J. Aside from receiving a new complement of Rolls-Royce-made F130 engines, the B-52 will receive, among others: a new modernized radar; improved avionics; communication upgrades; new wheels and brakes; and new digital displays to replace the original dashboard of analog dials.
The first B-52 to receive an upgraded Active Electronically Scanned Array radar flew to Edwards Air Force Base in California in December. Boeing installed the new Raytheon-made AN/APQ-188 Bomber Modernized Radar System — which is expected to provide upgraded navigation and improved targeting capabilities, and work in a variety of weather conditions — at its San Antonio, Texas, facility before airmen flew it to Edwards.
Boeing will conduct the work on these B-52s in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; San Antonio, Texas; Seattle, Washington; and Indianapolis, Indiana, the Pentagon said. The work is estimated to be done by the end of May 2033.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
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