USAF Taps Tough Negotiator For Boeing B-52 Upgrade Delays

Unusually, it is not a new aircraft program struggling with delays and cost overruns that has brought Boeing and the U.S. Air Force back to the negotiating table. The B-52J upgrade program’s engine replacement and radar modernization plans are both at risk of running behind schedule and over budget, Air Force officials say, following a change in the overall acquisition plan last year.

“We’re putting a lot of effort on that, making sure we’re keeping Boeing on schedule—actually trying to move the schedule to the left on that effort,” says Brig. Gen. Erik Quigley, the Air Force’s program executive officer for bombers.

• The service taps a tough negotiator for Boeing programs
• Lawmakers seek an all-nuclear-capable B-52 fleet

The service awarded Boeing the B-52 Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP) contract in 2018, with operations expected to begin in 2030. The company also won the Radar Modernization Program (RMP), which is planned to install the APG-79 active, electronically scanned array radar from the F/A-18 on the B-52s.

Costs for both programs are billions over previous estimates. Air Force B-52 Deputy Senior Materiel Leader Brian Knight told reporters at the service’s Life Cycle Industry Day conference in Dayton, Ohio, that the RMP estimate stands at $3.3 billion, up from a 2021 estimate of $2.3 billion. 

For CERP, the Air Force is now projecting a total cost of $15 billion, up from $12.5 billion in 2023. The service and Boeing are working on a new schedule baseline ahead of a Milestone B decision to start engineering and manufacturing development, Knight said at the conference.

To help Boeing keep to schedule, the service has brought in a specialist. In July, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced the hiring of Shay Assad, who was director of pricing when Kendall served as undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics. Assad was notorious in this role for harsh negotiations to cut companies’ profit margins to achieve better terms for the Pentagon.

Assad’s first task in his new position was to reach a deal with Boeing for the Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail program after the company put forth cost estimates that far exceeded Pentagon expectations. Now he is working with Boeing on the B-52J.

“I don’t want to speak disparagingly against Boeing,” Quigley said regarding Assad’s hiring. “I mean, the government had our own issues, too. It’s about efficiencies. A lot of it is in the business end of things, you know. How we do pricing, how we do proposals, how we do contracting when we go to the table to negotiate with any Defense Department industry partner.”

Some delays are linked to the change in acquisition approaches the Air Force made last year, shifting from a middle tier of acquisition pathway that utilized prototyping to a major capability acquisition. That moved most of the work into a single contract. “It created, I’ll say, the opportunity for the prime contractor to raise costs,” Knight said.

CERP has seen issues in testing, particularly around adding acoustic liners to the inlet of the Rolls-Royce F130’s nacelle. This has prompted more tests by Rolls-Royce, which Quigley says have been difficult as the program progresses because of a lack of wind tunnel capacity. Boeing is integrating the Rolls-Royce engines.

The B-52J upgrade program also includes new pylons, wiring and harnessing, as well as a new power generation system and cockpit with throttles, controls and displays. Quigley says the overhaul is needed to keep the bombers healthy enough to fly into the 2060s, as issues with their current Pratt & Whitney TF33s will become acute in about 2027. The Air Force and Pratt are discussing ways to improve the health of the TF33 as CERP proceeds, he says.

Likewise, the RMP is more than just slapping a new radar on the bomber. The APG-79 is legacy technology that requires rework before it can replace the older mechanically scanned APQ-166 radar. Moreover, Boeing is marrying the processor from the F-15’s APG-82 to the APG-79. Low-rate initial production of the RMP has been pushed to the spring of 2025, the Government Accountability Office says.

A 2023 Selected Acquisition Report stated that the program had discovered material defects in the design of the new radome, requiring a major redesign. Lab testing issues created a cost breach in 2023—problems with displays and sensor processors were the primary cause.

Quigley says the program office is consulting Air Force Global Strike Command to see if the overall radome requirements could be loosened to speed up the process. The program is shifting to a honeycomb design for the radome, Knight said. Additionally, Boeing and RTX are estimating long-lead part wait times that are about a year longer than originally expected.

While the engine and radar upgrade programs progress, lawmakers are calling on the Air Force to look at another major change for the B-52 fleet: restoring nuclear weapons capabilities for all of the bombers. Under the New START agreement, 30 of the bombers lost the ability to carry the weapons. The treaty is set to expire in 2026, although Russia suspended its participation in February 2023. While Moscow stopped short of withdrawing entirely, there are no plans for the treaty to continue beyond its expiration. Both House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill call for the change.

The Air Force could meet the timeline set in the bills and have the bombers converted by 2029, Knight said. He would not expand on how it would do so other than to say,“It’s relatively easy.” Nuclearizing the B-52s anew would cost about $4.5 million total, and the work would be added to regular depot maintenance, officials said.