There are some in the upper echelons of the AF who think the day of the bomber is gone.You know, I always wondered why you never see the B2. We see the B1 all the time, but the B2 is hardly ever seen.
I've often wondered what will happen in the next 15-20 years when so much of the Air Force large fleet is due to be replaced. Some of this stuff is Eisenhower era equipment!!!!! They've done an AMAZING Job in keeping things modernized and running (and a lot of that is because of the Tinker crews and the now nearby Boeing engineers), but there's only so much you can or should do before it's time to retire a plane. The problem is, there aren't really good alternatives for the price.
The B-52, E3, KC135. They've all older than dirt now. I could (in an uneducated way) say that a new plane would be lighter and more efficient, but I do not know if the cost for maintaining a newer plane is actually better given how different it would be constructed now and the need to retrain the entire force. There are probably a lot of other details that go into why it hasn't been done yet. Heck, we had a KC135 replacement all but done before it was pulled back because of political nonsense between Boeing and Airbus (damned if I am gonna have my USAF fly a Euro bird <- personal opinion).
I have a few friends that are engineers at the Boeing office. Recently an age issue came up (as it often does) for the B-52. Something I don't seem to understand is that (and this is quite common as well), is that there are certain parts that are old enough (still original) and need to be replaced, but rather than doing that, the USAF and Boeing have decided to spend MORE money and repair/modify the existing structure. I don't understand why anyone would do this....and it's a repeated thing. Metal fatigue should have been a factor long ago so I don't really understand why an original part can be around after 60+ years of operation on this thing.
But think about the number of people involved in all aspects of this. How much of the Boeing force that just moved here does this? Quite a bit. How much of the Bldg. 3001 force works on these...again, quite a bit.
Bookmarks