BARKSDALE AFB, La.–The U.S. Air Force’s 2nd Bomb Wing here is to be the lead wing for acceptance of the RTX [RTX] AGM-181 Long Range Standoff (LRSO) nuclear cruise missile, which eventually will fly aboard the B-21 Raider stealth bomber that Northrop Grumman [NOC] is building.
The early 1960s Boeing [BA] B-52Hs with the wing will be the first to carry LRSO.
“In many ways, we get to be the wing that writes the book on how we really employ this [LRSO] as a weapons system,” said Air Force Col. Michael Maginness, the commander of the wing and a veteran B-52H pilot.
Asked how LRSO will improve upon the Boeing AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), which has a W80-1 warhead that Air Force officials said can come in a lower-yield configuration, Maginness said LRSO will give the United States “capabilities to do things that are out of reach right now.”
The B-52H will have a new rotary launcher for LRSO.
“Anytime you’re talking nuke, that’s a different level,” Maginness said. “All the equipment is NCE [nuclear certified equipment]. We take take great care of all our stuff, but that’s a different level because that’s what the American public and leadership expect of us. Nuke is a ‘no fail’ [mission]. In nuclear, I tell my troops all the time, just remember it’s ‘safe, secure, and effective.’ Notice I didn’t say, ‘safe, secure, and efficient.’ That means if you check it ten times, check it 11.”
Asked whether the wing will receive LRSO in the next five years, “we’re probably within that time frame.” The Air Force has said that it wants LRSO to be operational in the early 2030s.
Last year, U.S. Strategic Command said that it was considering requirements to accelerate and increase the planned buy of 1,087 LRSOs (Defense Daily, Feb. 2, 2024).
The National Nuclear Security Administration is refurbishing the W80-4 warhead, through a life extension program, to tip the LRSO.
According to NNSA’s fiscal 2025 stockpile stewardship and management plan (SSMP), fiscal 2027 is to mark the first production unit of the W80-4.
Fielding of LRSO may adapt to the timelines of the major B-52H modernization efforts–the Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP) to replace the plane’s eight Pratt & Whitney [RTX] TF33-PW-103 engines, with more powerful Rolls-Royce F130s.
The F130 may allow the B-52H to fly from the U.S. to Australia, for example, without refueling.
The other major modernization for the B-52H is the Radar Modernization Program (RMP) to replace the Northrop Grumman APQ-166 with an active electronically scanned array radar based on RTX’s APG-79.
The B-52s with CERP and RMP will be the “new” B-52Js.
“Kind of all at the same time, I’m gonna be transitioning the wing from ALCM to LRSO [and] from [B-52]H to [B-52]J,” Maginness said. “That’s not gonna be as seamless as you think because we’re gonna have Hs, H pluses that have the radar but not the motors, and J minuses that have the motors but not the radars, and I’ll have Js.”