Rolls Set to Wing B-52 Bomber Contract

Timesonline ^ | August 18, 2003 | Elizabeth Judge

[hardhead]

ROLLS-ROYCE, the aeroengine manufacturer, is on course to win a £3 billion contract to refit the US fleet of B52 bombers.

The company confirmed yesterday that it has put forward two plans for updating the engines of the aircraft after being approached by Boeing and the US Air Force.

The B52s, which were used extensively in the Iraq war, are central to America’s bomber force but they are still powered by engines designed in the 1950s.

The US Air Force has 85 in its active fleet and nine in reserve, each with eight engines. Analysts said the contract could be worth £3 billion.

Rolls-Royce has proposed replacing the engines with four of its RB211 jets — the engine that powers such aircraft as the Jumbo 747 — or eight smaller BR700s.

[hardhead]

More bad news for U.S. companies.

[hardhead]

Oh damn! Wing=Win

[Blood of Tyrants]

Rolls Royce North America has several plants located in the U.S. One of these plants will no doubt be making the new engines.

[Blood of Tyrants]

http://www.rolls-royce.com/northamerica/index.htm

[scottlang]

I do not care which company makes it, as long as US workers get the jobs and the pay.

[Dundee]

It all depends, if Rolls makes a better engine (I don't know if they do or they don't) then isn't it good news for the Air Force?

On the other hand, if a US company made a better engine then that's something to get upset about.

[joesnuffy]

Its about time tax payer money is put to good use ..
OVERSEAS

[joesnuffy]

Rolls to slash US jobs

[MCRD]

Only 85 B52's in the active fleet and 9 in the reserve, what a shame. How many did Clinton chop in the name of arms control?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Wing Attack. Plan R.

[Tallguy]

Only 85 B52's in the active fleet and 9 in the reserve, what a shame. How many did Clinton chop in the name of arms control?

I bet you'll find that the USAF acquiesced in the decision to destroy the B-52's under the START Treaty. Those Buffs were probably configured to carry nukes for SAC (which is no more) and would have cost major $$$ to retrofit as conventional bombers. That puts old bombers in competition with the new, vastly more expensive B-2.

This isn't unique to the Air Force. All the services must divide their budgets between maintaining the "legacy force" and procuring the advanced weaponry. It's a never ending debate.

I think that they probably struck the right balance when you consider that the Air Force basically wasted Iraq and only committed about a Squadron to do the job. Imagine if the entire force were sent! Talk about "Shock & Awe"!

[hchutch]

Well, we still have the Gs in reserve, IIRC.

There's been talk of using B-52Hs as standoff jammers. Why not use the G models instead? If they do the conversion right, the EB-52Gs would still be able to carry all sorts of weapons. ALCM, JSOW, JDAM, iron bombs...

They'll be as treaty-compliant as the Mogami-class heavy cruisers were.

:)

[dighton]

Check out the Photoshop job one or two pages down.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I thought everything but the last 100 or so had been chopped up for aluminum scrap.

[hchutch]

I think the G models are still in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB:
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher2/b52_16.html

At least according to the above article.

Real simple plan: Install standoff jamming pods, maybe a new defense-suppression missile, but "forget" to take off the stuff to carry ALCMs and ACMs.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I have a photo in a book somewhere of an early, early model with what looks to be a machine gun sticking out the tail...

[A.A. Cunningham]

The only ones still operational are Hs. Anything at Davis-Monthan that hasn't been chopped and scrapped is used for parts.

[ASA Vet]

Armament: Four .50-cal. machine guns in a tail turret

[ken5050]

BTW, in the months before the Iraq War, I recall reading somewhere that this was done as a reward for Blair's support...

[Tennessee_Bob]

Pretty cool - here's the one I actually worked on when I was stationed at Chanute for training: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/211783/M/