[Old Sarge]

Here is a very interesting article on our bomber force, with a total of 76 B52's, 62 B1's, and 20 B2's.

Air Force’s B-1 Bomber Fleet Months Ahead of Repair Schedule, General Says

The U.S. Air Force's B-1B Lancer fleet is no longer as broken as it used to be, according to a top general.

www.military.com

 

[lysander]

Gone are the days when we had 2,500 bombers assigned to Strategic Air Command and a dozen of them in the air 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Even in 1972, there were over 150 bombers stationed at Anderson AFB on Guam alone.

 

[hipowerguy]

A B-52 in some form will be flying long after the B1 and B 2 are retired. One crashes or burns up on the runway, just give a shout to D-M and one is refurbed and put back in service to replace it. I wonder what the tanker force looks like now--I think when we were flying KC-135s as the main tanker, we were in the 700 airframe range.

 

[DLupini]

Their's a new bomber in development the B-21 Raider. It was announced a few years ago at AFA.

We are currently taking delivery of the KC-46 Pegasus

 

[lysander]

A B-52 in some form will be flying long after the B1 and B 2 are retired. One crashes or burns up on the runway, just give a shout to D-M and one is refurbed and put back in service to replace it. I wonder what the tanker force looks like now--I think when we were flying KC-135s as the main tanker, we were in the 700 airframe range.

No, I afraid not.

That is another thing that is gone forever, the plane park of B-52s at AMARC is gone. All that remains at Davis-Monthan are 66 85 B-52Gs that were cut into pieces in accordance with the SALT treaties (go look on Google maps). The B-52Ds and Es and Fs that were what most people associated with "the boneyard" were scrapped long ago.

Of the 750-odd B-52s built, the 88 remaining are B-52Hs, of which there were only 102 built. Hull losses, airframe fatigue and wearing out have reduced the number of available airframes to 58 in-service and 18 in short term storage (that's the 76 number quoted), there are only 12 others remaining in long term storage. And, no large aircraft ever put into long term storage at AMARC has ever been refurbish to flyable condition. One or two fighters, and a few helicopters have been brought out from AMARC and returned to service, but the big bombers and transports, they go the AMARC, are slowly stripped of parts until just a hull remains, then are cut-up for scrap.

 

[lysander]

I wonder what the tanker force looks like now?

KC-135:
153 Active AF
171 ANG
72 USAFR

KC-10:
58 Active AF

KC-46:
7 Active AF (with a total of 179 planned)

 

[hipowerguy]

No, I afraid not.

That is another thing that is gone forever, the plane park of B-52s at AMARC is gone. All that remains at Davis-Monthan are 66 85 B-52Gs that were cut into pieces in accordance with the SALT treaties (go look on Google maps). The B-52Ds and Es and Fs that were what most people associated with "the boneyard" were scrapped long ago.

Of the 750-odd B-52s built, the 88 remaining are B-52Hs, of which there were only 102 built. Hull losses, airframe fatigue and wearing out have reduced the number of available airframes to 58 in-service and 18 in short term storage (that's the 76 number quoted), there are only 12 others remaining in long term storage. And, no large aircraft ever put into long term storage at AMARC has ever been refurbish to flyable condition. One or two fighters, and a few helicopters have been brought out from AMARC and returned to service, but the big bombers and transports, they go the AMARC, are slowly stripped of parts until just a hull remains, then are cut-up for scrap.

I stand corrected. I had AF pals mention we brought 2 BUFFs back to service recently to replace two that went Tango Uniform. I made the assumption that they came from mothballs when they were probably from the reserve fleet. I still contend a few may be flying with the B-21 when the B-1 is long gone--I have a soft spot for the B-52. Thanks for the tanker detail.

 

[lysander]

I stand corrected. I had AF pals mention we brought 2 BUFFs back to service recently to replace two that went Tango Uniform. I made the assumption that they came from mothballs when they were probably from the reserve fleet. I still contend a few may be flying with the B-21 when the B-1 is long gone--I have a soft spot for the B-52. Thanks for the tanker detail.

Big stuff never comes out of AMARC because there are no repair and overhaul facilities there to handle bringing anything back to flyable condition. Once they fly in and are put into long term storage, they do not have the parts, tools or personnel required to "de-mothball" them. They can put smaller aircraft in C-5s or C-17s and fly them to places like Tinker AFB where they can return aircraft from long term storage to flying condition. Short term storage requires a lot of periodic inspections to ensure the aircraft remains flyable.

Some B-52s were put into storage at Barksdale back in the 1990, they have the ability to return to service at Barkesdale, at least they did back then.