No Power-Ups for BUFFS

There’s no re-engining program planned for the B-52, despite Global Strike Command leaders arguing hard in the last budget cycle that it would make sense to undertake one, according to Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski. Speaking with reporters at AWS16, Pawlikowski said that while GSC leaders “would very much like to” launch a re-engining program, “we haven’t figured out a way to put it in the budget” when there are so many other priorities. USAF looked at a federal law aimed at energy-saving investment incentives for facilities as a possible mechanism to fund the engines, as well as leasing and other contractual vehicles, but “the business case wouldn’t close” on any of them. “It would take too long” for maintenance and fuel savings to pay back the investment to make such an arrangement worthwhile to a “third-party source of funds,” she said. The steep drop in fuel prices exacerbated the business case, but was not the main reason why the re-engining didn’t make it into the budget, she said.