Venerable, Val ued Bombers The Air Force has big plans for its legacy bombers. n the edge of the tarmac are obviously focusing on conventional modernize USAF’s nuclear systems for at Barksdale AFB, La., missions at the moment, but we have the long term. on an overcast November the ability and the expertise to deploy In the current Future Years Defense morning,O Capt. Jonathan Ard pointed in the nuclear mission,” Ard said. “We Program, the Air Force will see a “sig- out the numbers just to the side of the just have to maintain it.” nificant amount” of investment in its nose art of a B-52H nicknamed Deuces The B-52’s current state is represen- nuclear-capable platforms, Klotz said Wild. The -0022 indicated the Air Force tative of USAF’s overall bomber fleet. at the Air Force Association’s Global placed its order for the bomber in 1960, The Air Force’s venerable B-52s, B-2 Warfare Symposium in Los Angeles in the year John F. Kennedy was elected stealth bombers, and conventional-only November. Per Presidential direction, the President. B-1Bs have all performed a variety of US will invest more than $100 billion Nearly 50 years old, the B-52s at missions since coming into the inventory. over the next decade to modernize and Barksdale’s 2nd Bomb Wing are re- And all three are expected to continue sustain the nation’s nuclear triad. About markably resilient, capable of flying flying for decades to come. $40.5 billion of this total is destined for missions ranging from close air support To maintain these capabilities, USAF investment in AFGSC’s fleet of nuclear- to dropping nuclear bombs. The bomber will invest a great deal of time and money capable bombers and intercontinental can drop or launch the widest array of to modernize the legacy bomber fleet. ballistic missiles, he added. weapons in the US air inventory, wing Improvements include radar programs, USAF would like to allocate some of officials point out, one of the many command and control tools, and software those funds to upgrade and modernize reasons the iconic bomber remains on upgrades for both the B-52 and B-2. components in the legacy bomber fleet duty for the foreseeable future. Air Force Global Strike Command that directly affect the nuclear mission. “We are a ‘full doc’ aircraft, which boss Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz believes On the wish list are a new 1760 data means we are employed in a range of the Air Force’s newly activated major bus for the bomb bays of the B-52H nuclear and conventional missions,” command must now move forward in fleet (to expand the number and types said Ard, a veteran electronic warfare three activity areas: developing human of weapons the BUFF could hold), officer in the B-52 and instructor with capital, solidifying doctrinal guidance modernized radar (to improve ground Barksdale’s 11th Bomb Squadron. “We for its forces, and securing resources to and aerial surveillance capabilities and The B-52 bomber can deliver the widest variety of weapons—conventional or nuclear—in the Air Force inventory. Along with the B-2 and B-1, it will remain in service for decades to come. 28 AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2011 Venerable, Val ued Bombers By Marc V. Schanz, Senior Editor aid in identifying targets at long range), mation ranging from tactical targeting “It’s very hard to convince people that and additional communications tools. pod data to secure communications in the B-2 is not a new airplane,” said Maj. New radars could assist with low-level the nuclear role. Gen. William A. Chambers, head of stra- flight patterns and reduce maintenance “Any future capability has got to be a tegic deterrence and nuclear integration costs, Klotz said, as the fleet’s current APQ- data-gathering and -sharing platform,” on the Air Staff, during a speech at an 166 radars are facing rolling obsolescence Carpenter added, especially as threats AFGSC symposium in Shreveport, La., issues. USAF plans a radar replacement such as anti-access and area-denial in November. The B-2 is packed with program for the B-52 by 2013. weapons proliferate. “In our bombers 1980s-era network gear and software and The Combat Network Communica- right now, data links are an issue we need needs a new “digital backbone,” he noted. tions Technology (CONECT) upgrade is to work on. … If you’re not a sharing The stealth bombers need to carry some another multiyear upgrade under way for platform, your utility will be limited.” of the most advanced weapons in USAF’s the B-52 fleet, AFGSC officials noted. arsenal, such as the Massive Ordnance It will improve connectivity with other Personnel Guidance Penetrator conventional weapon now in Air Force communications networks The Air Force announced an $11.9 operational testing. and platforms. BUFFs will be able to billion modernization contract in Sep- Don’t make the mistake of thinking receive mission data in flight and retarget tember for the B-52 fleet. Spread out that nuclear bomber and missile advo- weapons. over the next eight years, and based on cates are fixated on technology, how- The CONECT program is a big estimates from current activities and ever. Personnel guidance is particularly step forward, said Maj. Gen. Floyd projections for future modernization, important in the new command. Klotz L. Carpenter, commander of 8th Air the contract will pay Boeing for efforts said units came to Strike Command Force, but AFGSC wants to emphasize such as the Evolutionary Data Link, from other commands with different parallel development of command and extremely high frequency communica- practices and priorities. control tools for the B-52 and B-2 tions development, and other programs The integration process is not merely fleets. This would leverage existing to extend the B-52’s life. a “cut and paste” effort, as AFGSC has communications systems and help the The B-2 is also undergoing extensive issued more than 200 mission guidance two very different aircraft share infor- modernization. documents since August 2009—particu- Photo by Dane Collette AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2011 29 Initially, Klotz said he wasn’t sure he could attract appropriate talent to come to work, as the nuclear and global strike business hadn’t had a dedicated home since Strategic Air Command stood down in 1992. “I’ve been pleased it’s been just the opposite,” Klotz said USAF photo by SSgt. Jamie Powell during his Los Angeles speech. Eighth Air Force has stepped up to become the “institutional focal point” for global bomber operations and innovations, he said, to organize within and advocate on behalf of the bomber community for operational focus and resources to ensure the force can meet future mis- sions and taskings. Carpenter, a career B-52 pilot, noted that USAF’s fleet of BUFFs is sturdy, but can be difficult to modernize. “The digital world doesn’t always necessarily fit with the analog world of the aircraft,” Carpenter said. It is one of the reasons why putting a new digital interphone in the B-52 has proved a bit tough. Historically, crews have worked around these problems on a crew- by-crew basis, in many cases adding communications gear, installing GPS devices, and using light sticks to help pilots use night vision goggles. Capt. Dane Collette, an instructor pilot with Barksdale’s 11th BS, notes many B-52 crews network their own laptops with GPS devices in the cockpit, to work around the lack of a modernized data link. “We take advantage of every op- portunity we find,” he said. “The first combat mission I ever flew, we had a strapped-in satellite radio,” Carpenter said, recalling his B-52 crew’s participation in 1996’s Operation Desert Strike, a series of air strikes on Iraqi military targets. SSgt. Dustin Hyden (l) and SSgt. Doyle Atkinson load weapons onto a B-52. In the “Now, it’s all part of the infrastructure, next decade, $40.5 billion will be spent on modernizing and sustaining nuclear- but back then, that was all innovation capable bombers and ICBMs, and their infrastructure. from the crews,” he said. B-2 crews have developed some of larly from the inspector general’s office, that was until recently responsible for the same innovations, but due to the which has conducted rigorous updates the service’s fighter modifications and stealth bomber’s networked and inte- for nuclear operational readiness and upgrades, intelligence-surveillance -re- grated design, there are limits to what surety inspection regimes. connaissance programs, and nuclear and they can do. Bomber and missile squadrons were conventional strike assets. While the B-2 Keeping bombers combat ready is also relatively “minor stakeholders” in their and B-52 were transferred to Global tricky, as both the B-52 and B-2 have previous homes at Air Combat Com- Strike Command, the non-nuclear B-1B their own unique parts issues. SMSgt. mand and Air Force Space Command, remained with ACC. William Cromartie, head production Klotz said. A missileer himself, Klotz “I think the big cultural change superintendent at the 2nd Aircraft Main- said he spent lots of time dealing with is we now have a [major command] tenance Squadron at Barksdale, said satellite programs in a previous post focused solely on what they do every the B-52’s mission capable rate hovers as vice commander of AFSPC, while day,” Klotz said of AFGSC’s nuclear- around 75 percent, but as time goes the strategic deterrent Minuteman III capable bomber fleet. “If there’s a on, parts obsolescence becomes more mission “kind of got pushed over to problem or a question, someone can of an issue.