Posted on 05/27/2014 9:08:32 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. (AFNS) -- Air Force Global Strike Command took delivery of a significantly enhanced Boeing B-52H Stratofortress in a ceremony here, April 25.
The B-52H spent the previous 10 months at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., being refitted with the Combat Network Communications Technology, or CONECT, upgrade. This modification is designed to greatly improve the aircraft's utility in the modern battlespace and to keep the 50-year-old aircraft capable and lethal until at least 2040.
"The first CONECT B-52 we're about to receive is a major leap forward in advancing the BUFF on the battlefield," said Maj. Gen. Scott A. Vander Hamm, the 8th Air Force commander.
The CONECT upgrades provide the B-52H with digital display screens, computer network servers and real-time beyond line of sight communication links, allowing crews to stay connected to the world throughout their mission, officials said. A combined air and space operations center can now provide the aircraft with constant updated threat and targeting data, rather than the crew and mission being dependent solely upon information that was available at take-off.
"Over the past two decades we've seen rapid advancements in technology, and that has really changed way we operate on the battlefield, especially in the information environment," Vander Hamm said. "What hasn't changed is the need to advance our capabilities and integrate those technologies with information to provide our aircrew with the most up-to-date information and the ability to act on it."
The machine-to-machine interfacing introduced by CONECT also allows for rapid re-tasking and retargeting while eliminating potential human error, giving the B-52H the capability of conduct digitally-aided close-support missions in coordination with tactical air control parties on the ground. This ability to make precise changes in an instant is critical in the quicksilver world of modern combat.
"It's the integration of these and other CONECT aspects that are increasing the combat capability of this old, but very formidable, aircraft," Vander Hamm said.
Another facet of CONECT is the addition of networking devices to the aircraft to act as a digital framework, allowing for easier incorporation of new technologies in the future, officials said.
"Now when we add additional systems to the aircraft at some future date, we will be going from a digital component, across our new digital backbone, to another digital component elsewhere in the aircraft," said Alan Williams, the deputy program element monitor at AFGSC. "In the future, it will make upgrades easier to do because we'll already have the digital infrastructure in the aircraft."
Because CONECT requires making such extensive modifications to the aircraft, the upgrades can only be performed during Periodic Depot Maintenance, or PDM, at Tinker AFB. All aircraft are scheduled for PDM on four-year cycles.
According to officials, equipping a B-52H with CONECT requires nearly 7,000 man-hours to complete, or approximately nine months per aircraft. The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker currently has the capacity to perform a maximum of 17 of these refits per year. All B-52H's are scheduled to complete the upgrade by 2020.
"The B-52 is here to stay," Vander Hamm said. "CONECT is keeping us current, relevant and credible in today's and tomorrow's fight."
Believe it or not, it’s a matter of cost. Boeing offered to re-wing and re-engine the B-52 fleet a few years, but the Air Force decied it would be cheaper (long term) to keep the Buff in its original, eight-engine configuration.
I was told the cost for the program would be $2-3 billion. However, there are still a lot of TF-33 engines on Buffs and C-141s in the boneyard. The Air Force has been canibalizing those for years, and it’s one reason they haven’t looked at the re-engine option very seriously.
However, the supply of engines/parts at the boneyard is not unlimited, and there would be tremendous savings in going to a four-engine model with better fuel efficiency and greater thrust.
My younger brother worked in those babies in the 1970s. They were already full of new wire with the original wire harnesses still in place. Pulling the original ones out would be too expensive. Not only that, there are many "stop drills" and pop-riveted plates to repair air frame cracks. This makes the craft a great deal heavier than it is supposed to be.
For the life of me, why don't they build new ones using upgraded designs to replace the dangerously aged hulks? It is a wonderful design that should be replicated in newly built aircraft.
Bwahahaha ... I can see it now, landing in the Steppes to gather enough Peat to get home ...
Had one of these fly over me “lo&slo” souht of Gilette, WY in Wyoming in the early 80s. They were dropping flour sacks from ~500 feet.
Since I was the only car on the road within 200 miles on a Sunday afternoon, I suppose they wanted to have some fun and “give me the willies!”.
They did.
If you look at the C5 Re-engining, it was pretty expensive and they’re only doing about half of the C5B fleet as a result.
Here’s a pretty good article that describes in detail the hurdles that are faced in upgrading aircraft built as recently as the ‘80s. One can only imagine the difficulties that would face the B52s.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/saving-the-galaxy-the-c-5-amprerp-program-03938/
>>> A military pilot called for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running “a bit peaked.” Air Traffic Control told the fighter pilot that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down. “Ah,” the fighter pilot remarked, “The dreaded seven-engine approach.” <<<
Have Spike get the PowerBlock boys to launch a new series call ‘C5 Overhaul’.
They could weld on some 787 engines with controls, and have it out the door in 6 months.
That guy who does Extreme Off Road can fabricate about anything except a good haircut. At least it seems that way.
Big Ugly Fat Fellow, right? Kinda like Rear Echelon Mortar Fixers?
Used to be a show called Junkyard Wars or some such...the teams had to build something out of stuff found in the yard...pretty damned ingenious in some cases.
I’ve seen that aircraft just aren’t as forgiving of such “ingenuity” at times...the Law of Physics and all that.
As Obama says, win some loose some...
Can’t we re-design this old ship? Use Turoprops like the Russian Bear? We need this sort of ship so why not build a B-54 or a B-59?
The two engine per pylon weighs X much, produces Y amount of thrust, D amount of drag, L amount of lift (yes the nacelle shape produces lift), M amount of yaw moment, and L amount of pitch moment. Any change needs to stay in an envelope around each of those quantities.
Any that fall outside that envelope and the structure reacts very differently. i.e. The wing can fatigue faster or flutter (BAD) can result.
On top of that, the cost of changing out the H engines would be more than the airframes are worth according to the last time re-engining was looked at... and we need those bombers.
So we're stuck with them as they are for now.
That help?
Feller, yeah...that’s it...feller!
Valerie jarret keeps 8 engins because two of them are homosexual engines....
I had a couple of A-10’s pretending (I assume) that I was an enemy vehicle on a back road near McGuire AFB in South Jersey back around then. Lined me up, popped up from the tree line about two miles ahead and made their runs. Neat to watch, and fun-scary.
Yes, they had to phase out the coal burners when they found out people were aborting all the midget babies that used to be squeezed into the wings to stoke the engines.
Now, thinking about that same thing as if you were a red-diaper liberal who hates the military.
Given the above description, you would have probably had you Senator on speed dial!
Can they still fry chickens in the barnyard?
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