Aug. 7, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
has no set date in mind for retiring the B-1 Lancer, but it does has a multi-pronged approach for keeping the famed bomber credible until the B-21 comes online, focused on:
· Parts obsolescence
· Wear and tear
· Capability for new weapons
Brig. Gen. William Rogers, program executive officer for bombers at AFLCMC, told reporters at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference July 31
the Air Force has dropped its 2018 bomber plan that called for the B-1 and B-2 to retire in the early 2030s, and instead
will keep those aircraft viable until the stealthy B-21 is ready to replace them.
The new plan is called a “
Bomber Capability Roadmap” and directs investment to combating “obsolescence and diminishing manufacturing sources, which is a key concern of ours on those aging platforms,” Rogers said.
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One such capability may be using the B-1 as a platform for
testing hypersonic weapons. Boeing has offered the Air Force a modular pylon system that could enable the B-1 to do just that, potentially reducing the test load on the B-52, which is entering an intense period of testing new radars, communications, navigation, and engines.
“At this point, we’re really working to first prove the engineering and development work to see if it’s really a viable capability for the B-1,” Rogers said. “We’ve been working with Boeing, [which] has an [independent research and development] pylon that we call the
Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) pylon.”
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Full-scale structural fatigue testing on a B-1 fuselage carcass and wing is also underway at Boeing’s Tukwila, Wash., facility in order to get ahead of the fleet and see if there are “potential risk areas,” Rogers said. That step that was skipped in the 1980s in the urgency to field the B-1.
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The Air Force also has two B-1 carcasses that have been disassembled at the National Institute of Aviation Research at Wichita State University, Kan., for the purposes of
creating digital twins.
“Pretty much all the structural parts” have been scanned twice, Stupic said, to create computer-aided design/digital twins of the B-1 that can help predict structural issues and create a baseline for upgrades.
So far,
4,000 of a planned 51,000 CAD models of the B-1’s structure have been completed, he said.
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