Air Force Keeps Pulling B-1B Lancer Bombers from the Old 'Boneyard'

[rangerrebew]

Air Force Keeps Pulling B-1B Lancer Bombers from the Old 'Boneyard'
Story by Peter Suciu • 16h


Bomber Reborn: The U.S. Air Force has been gradually retiring its fleet of Rockwell B-1 Lancer bombers, with fewer than 50 remaining in service out of the original 100.


More of the Same: Recently, some of these retired bombers have been brought back into service, including "Lancelot" and "Rage," which were pulled from storage at the Davis-Monthan AFB's "Boneyard."

Pretty Amazing: These aircraft were preserved in reclaimable condition and are being refurbished to replace damaged B-1Bs. The Air Force is required to maintain a fleet of 45 B-1Bs until the B-21 Raider enters service in the coming years.
 
The United States Air Force's fleet of Rockwell B-1 Lancer bombers has slowly been retired from service. There are fewer than 50 of the Cold War long-range strategic bombers in service, down from its original 100. In 2021, the fleet saw 17 bombers retired – but due to a few incidents, there have been occasions where some of the old Bones sent to the infamous "Boneyard" have returned to service
.
That included the aircraft nicknamed "Lancelot," which was selected earlier this year to replace a B-1 Lancer that was damaged beyond repair after suffering an engine mishap during otherwise "routine" maintenance at Dyess Air Force Base (AFB), Texas in April 2022. The B-1 was flown to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, to complete the regeneration process.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/air-force-keeps-pulling-b-1b-lancer-bombers-from-the-old-boneyard/ar-BB1qyRJo?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=77e040fd2e4a437dbe96c51952bd61e1&ei=17

[rangerrebew]

I don't believe it to a positive sign.

[Smokin Joe]

I don't believe it to a positive sign.

Well, it is good that there are rebuildable aircraft in the boneyard, but if the Raider project was coming along swimmingly, you'd think they'd be on the flight line.

That there seems to be an uptick in 'incidents' requiring these to be brought out of storage is the scary part. Either airframe fatigue, maintenance, or training issues are likely parts of the problem.

Ground communication problems can contribute as well.

All this speaks of seemingly minor problems somewhere that can add up to loss of an aircraft and or crew. There are reasons for all the different little rules, and skipping over seemingly little things can come together to kill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCWmihJ7NSA

[PeteS in CA]

The most recent, planned, retirement of B-1s was 3 years ago, in 2021, a group of 17. The previous batch of 33 were retired in 2003. Since then a few B-1s (1 or 2?) have, like a few retired B-52s, been pulled out of retirement, refurbished. and returned to operation. The USAF has been doing this sort of thing for decades: unfamiliar normal may be good clickbait, but it is not a crisis, or even all that newsworthy.