THE CENTURY BOMBER: Engine Upgrades, Digitization to Keep B-52s Flying Into 2050s.

Air Force budget documents state that the current engine, Pratt & Whitney’s TF33-PW-103, “is increasingly difficult to sustain due to diminished manufacturing sources and obsolescent technologies.” The Air Force Propulsion Directorate projects the engine will become unsustainable by 2030, it added.

Global Strike Command is currently working with acquisition leaders as well as the service’s system program office to develop a strategy to buy the new engines, Davis noted. “It affects more than just the engines,” he said, adding that the aircraft’s wiring and electrical systems will be impacted. “It’s not as simple as pulling one engine and putting a new one in.”

The current engines are original to the H models, the last of which came off the manufacturing line in 1962, Davis said. Discussions have been ongoing over several decades about buying new engines, but have until now been tamped down based on budget constraints and the Air Force’s indecision about retiring the aircraft, he added.

We’re supposed to build enough B-21 Raiders to replace every B-52, B-1, and B-2 — the youngest of which was developed and went into production while I was in high school.