The United States Air Force plans to invest up to $1.7 billion to modernize its B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers during the next five years, revising plans to retire those aircraft before the next-generation B-21 Raider fully enters service. Extending the life of the bombers ensures the force retains the speed, range and stealth unique to those two platforms while it fields the B-21s and overhauls its B-52s into the new J configuration, with new engines and an all-glass cockpit, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine online. The U.S. Air Force previously called for retiring both the Lancers and Spirits by the early 2030s, but both aircraft demonstrated continued combat value in recent operations, including Operation Epic Fury in Iran. The move will extend the bombers’ use to 2037.
Budget documents show plans to spend $342 million to modernize 44 active-duty B-1Bs from 2027 to 2031. The U.S. Air Force will invest even more in its fleet of 19 B-2s — $1.35 billion during the same five-year window. “This request provides the necessary funding to modernize the platform, ensuring its lethality and relevance through 2037,” the budget said.
All three current bomber fleets — B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s — contributed to Epic Fury and remain ready to resume operations if needed.
“Given the skyrocketing demand [for bomber capacity], it makes perfect sense to buy back the B-1 and B-2,” retired U.S. Air Force Col. Mark Gunzinger, director of future concepts and capability assessments for AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Air & Space Forces magazine.
The B-1B is the fastest operational U.S. bomber and can carry upward of 34,000 kilograms internally, including 84 227-kilogram Mk-82 or 24 907-kilogram general purpose bombs. The Lancer originally was designed with nuclear capabilities, but its role shifted to a conventional bomber when those capabilities were removed beginning in the mid-1990s.
The B-2 is the only U.S. Air Force aircraft certified to carry nuclear weapons as well as the 13,600-kilogram GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator “bunker buster” considered to be the only bomb in any military arsenal capable of destroying Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, according to Forbes Online magazine. The B-1B, however, can carry more conventional weapons — both guided and unguided — than any other aircraft in the Air Force’s inventory.
Gunzinger said extending use of the B-1B and B-2 reflects the Air Force’s recognition that it will need the older bombers to keep pace with current operational requirements as it works to bring new capabilities to the field. “The operational demand for bombers continues to go in one direction: up,” he said. There is “both peacetime demand for bombers, to support bomber task force operations which help maintain deterrence globally, but also for operations like Midnight Hammer.”
The Air Force plans to acquire approximately 100 B-21s, but some Air Force officials say the service will need at least 145, and possibly more than 200, aircraft to meet long-term strategic demands.