Originally Posted by
tdracer
Sorry for the thread drift, but I really don't see the logic behind mothballing the relatively new B1 and B2, while dumping vast money into the 60 year old BUFF (I'd estimate the re-engine program at a minimum of $100 million each - probably quite a bit more with the associated R&D).
The B2 is quite stealthy, the B1 moderately so, while the BUFF is the antithesis of stealth. Yea, the BUFF can carry a large load, but the B1 is no slouch in that regard. In any sort of contested airspace the BUFF would be a sitting duck (or as a minimum would require a fleet of suppression aircraft) - the B1 and B2 would have at least a fighting chance.
What am I missing?
Cut and paste from the B-52 re-engine thread:
That's not really correct. A single large high bypass engine on the outboard pylons would end up too close to the ground. Some people claim this would cause an engine strike in a cross wind landing, but that's false. The B-52 does not bank into a crosswind. It has steerable landing gear and crabs wings level into a crosswind. The real problem is two-fold: FOD ingestion and wing flutter. In addition the airflow and CG distibution of a four engine layout would be very very different than the 8 engine layout. This would require recertification of every weapon and weapon combination from every store location and combination of store locations on the aircraft. That would require a LOT of very expensive test flying. The more we looked at the four engine solution, the worse it got. It quickly became a non player. The advent of modern engines in the required thrust range designed for biz jets made an eight engine solution possible again. There are still some issues, but they are miniscule compared to the four engine solution.
As for the B-52 vs the B-1, USAF preferred keeping the Bone flying over the Buff. For the past 10+ years USAF has been tearing down and doing deep-dive inspections of the Bone's structure. Sadly, keeping the structure safe to fly much past a single design lifetime is going to be very difficult and horrendously expensive. So the Buff gets the nod over the Bone and the Buff's new engines will pay for themselves if the Buff keeps flying for another 20-25 years. And to ensure that, USAF is investing heavily in corrosion inspections, abatement, correction and protection on the Buff. As for the B-2, that fleet is just too small to effectively manage and its stealth coating systems ludicrously difficult and expensive to maintain, so keeping it going after the B-21 comes on line would be foolish.