B52 Stratofortress

Boeing Wins $750M to Support the B-52H Fleet
13-Jan-2010 14:56 EST



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B-52H and B-17:
only as old as I feel…
In June 2009, the US Air Force is replaced Boeing’s existing fleet support contract for the USA’s B-52 heavy bomber fleet, with a 10-year, $750 million firm-fixed-price Engineering Sustainment Program (ESP) contract. All of the USAF’s 94 remaining B-52Hs were built at and delivered from Boeing’s Wichita, KS facility, and the ESP contract will support about 150 Boeing jobs.

Under the ESP contract, Boeing employees in Wichita, KS; Oklahoma City, OK; and at Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, LA will maintain the fleet’s readiness, handle and maintain the aircrafts’ engineering data, conduct related analyses and tests, investigate deficiencies or field issues, provide in-flight emergency response support, and perform required hardware and software modernization and upgrade work. Unfortunately, key upgrades like fleet replacing the ancient JT3D/TF33 turbofans to improve fuel consumption, maintenance, and efficiency have failed to materialize over the years. Nevertheless…


B-52H: gas guzzler
Despite its poor fuel economy, the B-52 fleet’s availability, long time on station, and large bomb loads of precision weapons have allowed it to retain a prominent role in modern low-intensity conflicts. Modifications and upgrades continue, in order to keep the B-52s relevant and effective within lower and mid-tier threat environments.

The aircraft are still believed to have many flight hours left, but aging aircraft issues can be sudden, and no level of maintenance work or clairvoyance can be assured of predicting them.

As a comparative note, if the beginning of the current maintenance contract is compared with the B-52 roll-out ceremony in 1954, an equivalent period backward in time from that induction would land you in 1899 – 4 years before the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

For a more direct comparison, the period of time between the in-service induction of the current B-52H Stratofortress variant in 1961, and the beginning of the current maintenance contract, is longer than the time period between the first B-17 Flying Fortress prototype aircraft flight in 1935, and the B-52H’s service induction. By the end of this ESP contract, the equivalent period backward from the B-52H’s induction will take you back to 1902, a year before the Kitty Hawk flights.

Contracts and Key Events


B-52H JDAM test
Dec 24/09: Boeing in Wichita Falls, KS receives a $750 million firm-fixed-price contract for the B-52 Engineering Sustainment Program. This appears to be a recap of the June 29/09 award. At this time, $22 million has been committed by the 327th ACSG/PK at Tinker Air Force Base, OK (FA8107-09-D-0001).

A Jan 13/09 Boeing release refers to this $22 million award as the first option year of the ESP contract, which includes a total of 9 annual options.

June 29/09: Boeing in Wichita, KS receives a $750 million follow on to their B-52 fleet support contract. They will provide recurring and non-recurring engineering services, including drawing and technical data maintenance, systems engineering support, technical analyses, government furnished property maintenance, detailed design engineering system and subsystem integration, hardware and software support, technical order updates, flight safety analyses, reliability and maintainability analyses, ground and flight test support, engineering feasibility studies, material deficiency report analysis, field problem investigation, and in-flight emergency response.

At this time, $9.6 million has been committed by the managing 327th Aircraft Sustainment Group Contracting Division at Tinker Air Force Base, OK (FA8107-09-D-0001). See also Boeing release.

USA: Boeing décroche un contrat de 12 mds de l'armée de l'Air


NEW YORK — Le groupe d'aéronautique et de défense américain Boeing a décroché un contrat de près de 12 milliards de dollars sur huit ans pour moderniser le système d'armement des bombardiers B-52 de l'armée de l'Air américaine, a annoncé mercredi le Pentagone dans un communiqué.
"Boeing a reçu un contrat de 11,9 milliards de dollars (...) sur huit ans" de la part de l'armée de l'Air pour fournir les services et matériaux nécessaires à "la modernisation du système d'armement des B-52", indique ce communiqué du Pentagone.
"A ce stade, aucun fonds n'a encore été débloqué", précise le bref communiqué du ministère américain de la Défense
....

Vector a écrit:Bonjour aux fans du B-52,
C'est quand même étonnant de voir que la cellule ne semble pas affectée par la fatigue et la corrosion. Pour un avion conçu dans les années 50 et construit en 1960, c'est assez étonnant. Ils faisaient solide dans ce temps là et je me demande où le 787 sera à plus de 50 ans !

Why The B-52 Got $11.9 Billion

When the Air Force announced an $11.9 billion sustainment contract to Boeing last week for the venerable and enduring B-52 eyebrows shot up along the Potomac, especially on Capitol Hill.

It appeared to provide roughly $127 million per airplane spread out over eight years, one hell of a lot of money for a plane that originally cost $9.3 million in 1955 (somewhere around $76 million per in current dollars). So we checked with the Air Force to get some details on just what was happening and why.

Congressional aides were flabbergasted by the contract, for which no money has been authorized and almost none obligated. When I shared the Air Force response with some congressional aides they were not happy since I got an answer more quickly than they did. One of them put it this way: “I can’t validate or comment yet on what you’ve been given, other than the fact that it’s “ops normal” on how the Pentagon chooses to interact and engage with the Hill.” (There were also a few choice words about how “dysfunctional” the legislative affairs office at the Pentagon is, but we won’t go into that.)

Here are the details on the B-52 deal. It’s an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract. The amount is “based on estimated costs derived from current activities and in-house estimates for future projected support requirements for B-52 modernization.” In an interesting approach, the Air Force gave the contract a “sufficient ceiling” for “programs critical to maintaining B-52 mission capability as funding is appropriated and authorized.” That may allay some of the concerns on the Hill about the deal.

While it is an astonishing amount of money, almost nothing is actually being spent so far. “No funds were obligated with the award of the basic IDIQ contract, but the basic contract contains a $600,000 minimum order quantity provision,” Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Jack Miller said in an email. That was the first payment for a $2.3 million order of 16 Evolutionary Data Link (EDL) Phase III kits” and some “basic engineering support through 29 Feb 12.”

On top of that tiny sum, the contract should also pay for “Combat Networks Communication Technology (CONECT) production, Extremely High Frequency (EHF) engineering development and production, Strategic Radar Replacement development and production, Tactical Data Link engineering studies, MIL-STD-1760 Internal Weapons Bay production, trade studies, and other programs critical to maintaining B-52 mission capability out to the year 2040.”

Given the amount of the contract I thought there might be some re-engining or fuselage work. Not so, says Miller. It could, of course, be done under the contract “if authorized and funded,” he noted.

Beochien a écrit:Merci Julienaline !

De ce que j'ai du croiser ailleurs, le budget concerne plus les systèmes d'armes, les com's etc ... du B52 !
De toute façon, le B52, il est comme les Tankers, il ne peut plus approcher une zone de combat "Sérieuse"

Bof quand on voit leurs B2 Spirit qui coûtent entre 1,5 et 2  milliards de $, et qui ont moins de charge utile ... tout est relatif aussi !

Ils feraient aussi bien de ré-équiper avec des soutes à bombes les 747 qui rejoignent le Mojave, leurs équipages seraient plus confortables, cafeteria à bord, et même que Airbus leur repasserait peut être des plans pour les douches !

Et pour s'occuper de Ben Laden , depuis 10 ans ou plus .... et peut être pour les 10 qui viennent, les B29 suffiraient d'ailleurs une foi remilitarisés !

JPRS