B-52H oppdatering - The War Zone

 

Rolls Royce Will Provide Long-Awaited New Jet Engines For The B-52 Bomber Fleet

After decades of trying, the B-52 will finally get new engines, with Rolls Royce being tapped for the contract that could be worth up to $2.6B.

JOSEPH TREVITHICK View Joseph Trevithick's Articles

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The Pentagon has revealed that the U.S. Air Force has chosen Rolls-Royce's North American division to supply F130 turbofans to re-engine its fleet of B-52H bombers. This upgrade program, which has been years, if not decades, in the making, is a major milestone for the service's B-52H fleet and will help ensure those bombers keeping flying through 2050.

Details about the deal were included in today's edition of the Pentagon's daily contracting notice, which includes information about all awards valued over $7.5 million. Rolls-Royce's new contract from the Air Force is valued at $500,870,458 over the next six years but could grow to over $2.6 billion if all of its options are exercised. 

F130

We've selected Indianapolis to build our proposed engine for the USAF B-52 re-engining competition - the F130. Our new, modern, advanced manufacturing facilities are the perfect location to produce, assemble, and test the F130 for the B-52 program. https://bit.ly/2C1u746

Posted by Rolls-Royce plc on Friday, March 1, 2019

“This contract provides for 608 commercial engines plus spare engines, associated support equipment and commercial engineering data, to include sustainment activities, to be used on the B-52H bomber fleet,” according to the Pentagon's announcement. “The location of performance is Indianapolis, Indiana, and work is expected to be completed by Sept. 23, 2038.”

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The total number of engines cited here, 608, is exactly enough for one-for-one replacements of the eight Pratt and Whitney TF33 engines found on each of the Air Force's 76 B-52H bombers. To help keep costs low, the Air Force had required the companies competing for the re-engining deal to submit proposals that would be able to leverage the aircraft's four existing underwing engine pods, each of which holds two TF33s. Other modifications to the bombers are planned as part of the upgrade process.

USAF

A B-52H bomber.

Rolls-Royce is confident that the F130s will not need to be completely replaced throughout the rest of the expected service life of the Air Force's B-52Hs, but it still seems likely the Air Force will want to buy spares as time goes on to ensure it has extra engines should it need them.

The F130 beat out General Electric's CF34-10 and Pratt and Whitney's PW800 to secure this deal. Pratt and Whitney was effectively the incumbent in this competition, though the TF33 engine that powers the B-52H now has been out of production since 1985. The company has continued to provide support for TF33s found on B-52Hs and other Air Force aircraft since then, but at an ever-growing cost. As of 2016, the Air Force was spending approximately $2 million per engine to overhaul TF33s every 6,000 flight hours.