{"id":66834,"date":"2024-02-12T16:32:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2024\/02\/12\/more-with-less-lacking-parts-airmen-scramble-to-keep-b-52s-flying\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:05:55","slug":"more-with-less-lacking-parts-airmen-scramble-to-keep-b-52s-flying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2024\/02\/12\/more-with-less-lacking-parts-airmen-scramble-to-keep-b-52s-flying\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018More with less\u2019: Lacking parts, airmen scramble to keep B-52s flying"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber has been in service since the 1960s. Here’s what it will take to keep it flying.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. \u2014 As the B-52H Stratofortress tops more than six decades in service, it\u2019s grown increasingly temperamental \u2014 and for the U.S. Air Force, a challenge to keep in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its original 1960s-era engines keep finding \u201cnew and creative\u201d ways to break, as an Air Force Global Strike Command leader put it. Stocks of spare parts are limited, and the industrial base needed to repair broken components or make new ones is drying up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force is scrambling to keep the B-52 bomber operational and is resorting to an array of options to do so \u2014 up to and including a process called cannibalization. To date, three out of every five B-52s are able to carry out their missions at any given time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airmen across the spectrum at Barksdale Air Force Base \u2014 from the flight line and supply shop to leadership \u2014 describe a situation where maintainers must regularly \u201ccannibalize\u201d parts, meaning take them off one B-52 to be installed on another so the second aircraft can fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a lengthy process that can create further problems, and it\u2019s meant to be a last resort. But the B-52 community is increasingly turning to that method. Tech. Sgt. Bonny Carter, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the B-52\u2032s decentralized maintenance support section at Barksdale, said the rate of cannibalization has gone up 200% since 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic<\/a> snarled supply chains worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Strike Command disputed that figure, though it acknowledged cannibalization rose over the last five years mainly due to obsolete parts. The command did not provide statistics on cannibalization rates, as requested by Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A B-52 Stratofortress assigned to the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., lands at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on April 11, 2023. (Airman 1st Class William Pugh\/U.S. Air Force)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force is using other fallback options first, such as pulling parts out of the \u201cBoneyard,\u201d the Air Force\u2019s airplane cemetery in Arizona where many retired B-52s rest. The service also combs the industrial base for new sources of fresh parts, and taps its own back shops and sustainment center to repair parts or make new ones. Back shops are rooms where specialized repair and maintenance is done on smaller components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A wide-ranging series of modernizations for the B-52 \u2014 everything from new Rolls-Royce engines to new wheels and brakes \u2014 is on the way, and the Air Force hopes these upgrades will result in a more reliable airplane, with a fresh supply of spare parts that relieves some pressure on maintainers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But until that happens, Global Strike Command will need to keep the B-52H flying, even if it\u2019s increasingly daunting, said Col. David Miller, the organization\u2019s director of logistics and engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vendors, pool of parts dwindling<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The biggest maintenance challenge facing the B-52 is the \u201cslow atrophy\u201d of the defense-industrial base that supplies it, according to Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe vendor base is just drying up,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to entice vendors to continue to make very old, very difficult parts in small numbers is a challenge,\u201d particularly when it comes to specialized parts with little, if any, value to commercial aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reduction of the B-52 fleet over the years \u2014 from a high of 744 to 76 today \u2014 also shrunk the market for spare parts, further limiting companies\u2019 opportunities to make money in this business. Some companies, particularly small mom-and-pop shops, have either decided to stop making parts the B-52 relies upon, or gone out of business entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\t