Rolls-Royce North America has prevailed in the Air Force's three-year competition to re-engine the nearly-60-year-old B-52H fleet of 76 aircraft, winning a contract worth up to $2.6 billion if all options are exercised. The engines are to be fully installed by 2038 and are meant ...
B-52H
The contract to re-engine the B-52 bomber should be awarded by the end of this month, senior service acquisition officials reported Sept. 21. The B-52 Commercial Engine Replacement Program seeks to replace the B-52’s original-equipment TF30 engines with new powerplants that should improve fuel burn ...
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he's "unsatisfied" with the pace of progress in Air Force hypersonics programs and even "the degree to which we’ve figured out what we need from hypersonics." Speaking to reporters at AFA's Air, Space & Cyber Conference, he said he's ...
Total aircraft inventory; aircraft inventory trends; ICBM and satellite inventory; aircraft age; tail codes.
The first booster flight test of the Air Force’s AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon failed April 5. In a release issued April 6, the service acknowledged the failure is a “setback” for hypersonic progress, but said the test still provided “valuable information” for the program’s ...
As flight-tests begin, the military must overcome shortages of talent, test capacity, and supply.
An AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon hypersonic missile is being readied for its first booster flight at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the Air Force announced March 5. The missile that flies within the next month will not be an all-up round. Instead, the test ...
The Air Force will fly all three of its bomber types—a B-1B, B-2A, and B-52H—over Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 7, the service announced. The mission marks the first time the three bomber types have flown formation over such an event, and ...
Two B-52s flew a direct, 36-hour round-trip flight from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to the Persian Gulf this week in the latest of a series of task force missions to the region. The B-52Hs from the 5th Bomb Wing took off from Minot on ...
Two B-52s flew directly to the Persian Gulf from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in what the military says is a message of deterrence to Iran. The bombers, from the 2nd Bomb Wing, took off from their home base Dec. 9 and integrated with other ...
A B-1B bomber on Dec. 4 released a JASSM stealth missile from its Sniper targeting pod pylon. The demonstration follows a captive-carry dress rehearsal in November, and paves the way for the B-1 to carry a variety of munitions, but especially hypersonic missiles, on external ...
Why bombers are the most flexible leg in the nuclear triad.