Date: 2025-07-02 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00026549
ROLLS-ROYCE
NEW RR POWER FOR B-52 BOMBERS
Quora: New RR engine installation in process for upgraded B-52J series
NEW RR POWER FOR B-52 BOMBERS
Quora: New RR engine installation in process for upgraded B-52J series
Original article:
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
Written by Van Roeling ... Worked at Aviation Enthusiast
Updated Mar 31, 2024
While the B-52 has the RCS of the Empire State Building, it has been continuously updated and kept relevant since it’s introduction into service in the mid 1950’s after its first flight on April 15, 1952. A total of 744 B-52s of all versions were built.
The last B-52 was built in 1962, and the latest major update will cost $2.6 Billion and include all new, much more fuel efficient Rolls Royce F130 turbofan engines currently undergoing final testing at the NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi which will extend its current 8800+ mile range and flexibility:
Although Rolls Royce is a very British company, these 600 replacement engines will be built in Indianapolis, IN and already have over 30 million flight hours of proven service, mainly on larger private and commercial jets. The only B-52 model currently in service is the B-52H, which will be reclassified as B-52J’s after the new engine installation.
Multiple versions of the OEM Pratt and Whitney engines (which are the same engines that powered commercial Boeing 707 aircraft!) have labored on for over 60 years and must be replaced due to high ongoing maintenance costs and lack of replacement parts. This engine replacement update should be completed by the end of 2038.
Bottom line, the B-52 is still a great, proven weapons platform than can haul 70,000 lbs of any combination of gravity bombs, cluster bombs, precision guided missiles, joint direct attack munitions or cruise missiles. The B-52 can deliver this ordnance over a very long distance and stay well outside of normal anti aircraft missile defense range, loiter around the battlefield if needed for hours, turn around and go home. The days of bombing directly overhead with gravity bombs alone are long gone!
The 76 active B-52H’s remaining in the USAF are projected to be in front line service until almost 2050 and will be gradually retired with the onset of the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber program. The USAF also has about a dozen B-52’s in mothballs out at Davis-Monthan AFB outside of Tucson, Arizona (the Boneyard) which can be returned to service if needed.
I have been visiting the Shreveport/ Bossier City, LA market for almost 30 years. Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City is the primary Global Strike Command B-52 home base in the world and seeing B-52’s taking off and landing there is truly a sight to behold. Below is a Barksdale B-52 as evidenced by the LA on it’s tail standing for Louisiana: