The Air Force awarded Boeing a $179 million contract to design a new tail-kit assembly for the B61 free-fall nuclear bomb as part of the B61 Mod 12 Life Extension Program. The Air Force is pursuing the LEP to improve the decades-old bomb’s overall safety, security, and use control, and to ensure its functionality on the F-35 strike fighter as part of the US extended nuclear deterrent. “We will apply our proven experience in tail kit production to this platform to effectively upgrade a vital deterrent capability,” said Debbie Rub, Boeing’s general manager for missiles and unmanned airborne systems, in the company’s Nov. 27 release. The contract covers the three-year design, development, and qualification phase for the new tail kit. The company said its design would replace obsolete parts and improve the bomb’s reliability. The B-2 stealth bomber also carries the B61. (See also Pentagon’s list of major contracts for Nov. 27, Timeline for Nuclear Warhead Life Extensions, and No Wavering.)
It’s Time for the Air Force to Embrace the F-35
May 23, 2025
Douglas A. Birkey The United States revolutionized air combat with the invention of stealth technology and the low-observable combat jet. Beginning in the 1980s with the F-117 and continuing in the years that followed with the B-2, F-22, F-35, and...