Two B-52 bombers will head back to their manufacturer for new engines this year, kicking off a long-awaited upgrade meant to help keep flying the Stratofortress until nearly their 100th birthday.
On Monday, Air Force officials announced that the Commercial Engine Replacement Program had passed a critical design review originally scheduled for 2023. That clears Boeing to begin replacing the B-52’s 1960s-era Pratt & Whitney TF33-PW-103 engines with new Rolls-Royce F130s.
The first re-engined B-52s will be tested at Edwards Air Force Base, California, before the go-ahead is given for the rest of the fleet. As the 76 B-52H bombers receive their new powerplants and a radar upgrade, they will be redesignated B-52Js.
“Boeing, the prime contractor for integration, is procuring and manufacturing parts, and will begin modifying the first two B-52H aircraft into the B-52J configuration at its facility in San Antonio, Texas,” the Air Force said in a press release. “The first bomber is scheduled to arrive for modification later this year.”
In 2021, the Air Force awarded Rolls Royce a $2.6 billion contract to build the F130 engines, which passed their own critical design review in late 2024 and completed operability and altitude testing in February, Defense One first reported.
The B-52 upgrade plan received heavy scrutiny last year after Boeing was blamed for F130 integration problems and after radar-upgrade costs triggered a Nunn-McCurdy Act breach.
“This CERP critical design review is the culmination of an enormous amount of engineering and integration work from Boeing, Rolls Royce, and the Air Force that will enable the B-52J to remain in the fight for future generations,” Lt. Col. Tim Cleaver, the CERP program manager, said in the news release.
Air Force officials view the engine upgrades as “crucial for keeping the B-52 Stratofortress a formidable asset in the nation’s long range strike arsenal through 2050 and beyond,” the news release said. The B-52, which entered service in 1955, has flown missions ever since—most recently in the war on Iran.
The Air Force is developing the next-generation B-21 bomber to replace its B-1s and B-2—but not its B-52s. Even defense experts who want the service to double its planned purchase of 100 B-21s agree that the B-52 will remain relevant.
“A future force of 200 B-21s combined with remaining B-52s would more than double the Air Force’s current longrange strike sortie capacity,” a February report from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. “Since more than 70 percent of this force mix would consist of stealthy B-21s, it would also restore the Air Force’s historical capacity to penetrate the most challenging air defenses to deny sanctuaries and attack an adversary’s centers of gravity.”
