The Government Accountability Office’s annual weapon system assessment also found that the Air Force is moving to field a hypersonic attack cruise missile in 2027, despite delays driving a compressed flight testing schedule.
A separate Boeing project to integrate a new radar on the B-52 Stratofortress bomber has also suffered a cost breach, said Air Force official Darlene Costello.
The U.S. Army’s MAPS Gen II program of record for assured PNT provides an authoritative and reliable source of truth for combat vehicles in a highly contested battlespace.
The company is expected to produce over 600 engines to breathe new life into the Air Force’s B-52 fleet, now expected to fly well into the 21st century.
The pricetag to put new engines on the decades-old bomber has jumped from $12.5 billion to $15 billion, while an effort to integrate a new radar has climbed to $3.3 billion from an original forecast of $2.3 billion, service officials revealed.
“There's a lot that can go wrong on the program management side,” Col. Louis Ruscetta, senior materiel leader of the B-52 division, said of the bomber's upcoming modernization. “We have to try to manage and reduce what can go wrong."
Rolls-Royce beat out General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, the latter of whom produced the TF33 engines currently used on the B-52.
Explore how networked warfare, AI, and 3D-printed drones are reshaping US Indo-Pacific strategy.
A contract for one of three companies is "imminent," per top Air Force officials.
Darlene Costello, acting Air Force acquisition head, has issued a guidance document, called the Digital Building Code, for implementing the service's ambitious digital revolution.
Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation, and Pratt & Whitney have invested hundreds of thousands of hours of digital engineering on the podded mount for the digital engines to virtually attach to the bomber's wing, as well as on other tests such as understanding airflow properties of the aircraft.
With hundreds of thousands of hours of digital engineering work done, Rolls-Royce is well ahead of schedule for the F130 engine development.
As aircraft shrink, threats expand, and technology accelerates, aircraft engines must iterate along with the threats.
"Certainly, we're in the in the conversation for the HACM as that gets developed," Global Strike Command head Gen. Timothy Ray said.
Combatant Commanders for European Command and Indo-Pacific Command see bombers with hypersonic capabilities as "incredibly, incredibly valuable," says Gen. Timothy Ray.
In this Viewpoint from Rolls-Royce North America, Craig McVay, senior vice president of strategic campaigns and retired Marine Corps fixed-wing aviator, discusses how the company is bringing advanced technology and support to the USAF B-52 re-engining program.
"How are we going to employ hypersonic weapons, what do they bring to the battlefield?," asks Maj. Gen. Mark Weatherington, commander of the 8th Air Force and the Joint-Global Strike Operations Center.