The U.S. Air Force is hoping to finally kick off flight testing of the new AN/APQ-188 radar for the B-52 shortly. The B-52 Radar Modernization Program (RMP), a key element of a larger plan to deeply upgrade the bombers, has been beset by delays and cost overruns, which led to a review of its main requirements.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, gave an update on the B-52 radar upgrade effort during a virtual talk yesterday hosted by the Air & Space Forces Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Raytheon is the prime contractor for the AN/APQ-188, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) type also known as the Bomber Modernized Radar System. The Air Force plans to replace the Cold War-era mechanically scanned AN/APQ-166 radars in each of the 76 B-52Hs in service now with the AN/APQ-188. Once they receive the new radars, as well as all-new engines and a host of other upgrades that you can learn more about here, the bombers will be redesignated as B-52Js, and are expected to continue flying through 2050.
The AN/APQ-188 is primarily based on the proven AN/APG-79 radar, versions of which are found on F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler jets in service with the U.S. Navy and others, as well as the upgraded legacy F/A-18 Hornets for the U.S. Marine Corps. It also incorporates technology from the AN/APG-82 found on Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles and F-15EX Eagle IIs.
“I believe that we are very close to getting that first radar to Edwards Air Force Base [in California] to begin flight test,” Gebara said. “I don’t have a specific date for you today, but I believe that is turning the corner, and I’m very eager, as a former B-52 pilot, very eager to see that get underway.”
Gebara’s comment here about “turning the corner” reflects the substantial schedule slips and cost growth that the B-52 radar upgrade program has experienced. Raytheon announced nearly two years ago that it had delivered the first AN/APQ-188 radar to the Air Force. Flight testing was supposed to begin in Fiscal Year 2024, but was then delayed to Fiscal Year 2026, which begins on October 1 of this year. This, in turn, has pushed back the expected timeline for reaching initial operational capability from Fiscal Year 2027 to the Fiscal Year 2028-2030 timeframe.
“Program officials stated that challenges related to environmental qualification, parts procurement, and software contributed to these delays,” according to a June report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog.
In January, the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) had also released its most recent annual report on the B-52 radar upgrade program, covering work conducted during the 2024 Fiscal Year, which highlighted challenges with physically integrating the AN/APQ-188 into the bomber’s nose.
The delays have come along with cost growth. In May, the Air Force publicly disclosed that the price tag on the B-52 RMP had risen to the point of triggering a formal breach of the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment, a law designed to curtail runaway defense spending. This prompted a review of the program’s requirements and cost estimates.
“Part of what we did to control cost is to work at what are the main things that we need on this radar? As you may recall, we’re buying a radar that is largely a F-18 Hornet radar with some small modifications. We did that intentionally because that is what was on the market at the time,” Lt. Gen. Gebara explained yesterday. “It would actually cost us more if we asked [a contractor] to design the new radar.”
“Having said that, it doesn’t mean that we need everything on that radar that the Hornet had on it,” he continued. “We have a certain number of minimum things that we need to do to be able to do our B-52 mission. And so part of the cost saving [review] was looking at what are those things, to make sure that we’re prioritizing precious dollars on things that we need.”
Gebara added that the design of the AN/APQ-188 “does give us opportunities for growth in the future, if it comes to that.”
In March, the Air Force had put out a contracting notice seeking new information about radar options for the B-52, but the service insisted at that time that it was not abandoning the AN/APQ-188. Gebara was asked about this yesterday and said he was unaware of any consideration of an alternative radar.
How the aforementioned review of the B-52 RMP’s requirements might impact the full scale and scope of capabilities that the new AN/APQ-188 radars bring to the bombers, at least initially, remains to be seen. As TWZ has previously written:
“In general, AESA radars offer greater range, fidelity, and resistance to countermeasures, as well as the ability to provide better overall general situational awareness, compared to mechanically scanned types. Increasingly advanced AESAs bring additional capabilities, including electronic warfare and communications support.”
“For the B-52, any new multi-mode AESA will improve the bomber’s target acquisition and identification capabilities, including when used together with targeting pods available for the bombers now. New radars for the bombers will also be helpful when it comes to guiding networked weapons over long distances to their targets and could provide a secondary ground moving target indicator (GMTI) and synthetic aperture radar surveillance capabilities. The radar upgrade could help defend B-52s from air-to-air threats, including through improved detection of incoming hostile aircraft.”
The radar upgrade effort is not the only part of the larger B-52J modernization plan to be suffering from delays and cost increases. The Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP), which is working to replace the eight out-of-production TF33 turbofans that power each B-52H with an equal number of Rolls-Royce F130s, has also seen its schedule slip and price point grow. As it stands now, B-52s are not expected to begin flying operational missions with their new engines until 2033, three years later than expected and 12 years after the initial CERP contract was signed. The entire B-52H fleet may not be reengined until 2036.
The expected start of flight testing of the AN/APQ-188 soon does look to be an important step in the right direction for the B-52 radar upgrade effort after years of setbacks.
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