The AN/APQ-188 radar improve for the B-52 is lastly getting ready to start flight testing, following years of delays, value overruns, and a program assessment.
The U.S. Air Pressure’s long-running effort to equip the B-52 Stratofortress with a brand new radar is shifting nearer to flight testing. Lt. Gen. Andrew J. Gebara, Deputy Chief of Workers for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, offered an replace on the B-52 Radar Modernization Program (RMP) throughout a web based occasion hosted by the Air & House Forces Affiliation’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Research on Aug. 27, 2025.
“I consider that we’re very near getting that first radar to Edwards Air Pressure Base to start flight take a look at,” Gebara stated, including that he was “very keen” to see the milestone reached, talking additionally from the attitude of a former B-52 pilot. The beginning of flight testing might mark a possible turning level in a modernization program that has confronted vital schedule slips, value overruns, and a congressional assessment.
The Radar Modernization Program
The radar improve is a cornerstone of the broader B-52J configuration, which additionally contains new engines, up to date avionics, and structural enhancements meant to maintain the bomber fleet in service by 2050. The brand new radar, Raytheon’s AN/APQ-188 – additionally known as the Bomber Modernized Radar System – is supposed to switch the out of date mechanically scanned AN/APQ-166 that has been in use for the reason that Chilly Battle.
The AN/APQ-188 is an energetic electronically scanned array (AESA) radar derived primarily from the AN/APG-79 discovered on the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Tremendous Hornet and EA-18G Growler, with extra parts from the AN/APG-82 of the U.S. Air Pressure’s F-15E and F-15EX. By leveraging present, confirmed designs, the Air Pressure aimed to regulate prices whereas giving the B-52 entry to fashionable multi-mode AESA capabilities.
AESA radars convey vital benefits over mechanically scanned techniques. Amongst these are elevated detection vary, improved decision, larger resistance to jamming, and multifunctional capabilities that may additionally assist digital warfare.
For the B-52, the brand new radar is anticipated to reinforce goal acquisition, probably with floor shifting goal indication and artificial aperture radar features. Moreover, though it’s optimized for air-to-ground roles, the brand new radar might nonetheless retain air-to-air capabilities to the bomber defend towards air-to-air threats.
Delays And Value Progress
Regardless of these ambitions, this system has confronted critical difficulties. Raytheon delivered the primary radar to the Air Pressure practically two years in the past, however flight testing, initially deliberate for Fiscal 12 months 2024, was postponed to Fiscal 12 months 2026. This delay additionally shifted the anticipated preliminary operational functionality from 2027 to a window between 2028 and 2030.
A June 2025 report from the Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) attributed the setbacks to challenges with environmental qualification, software program growth, and elements procurement, whereas the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Take a look at and Analysis (DOT&E) flagged difficulties in bodily integrating the radar into the B-52’s nostril part.
A uncommon view of B-52’s open nostril. In 2023, Boeing initiated a significant radar improve program for the B-52. The Radar Modernization Program (RMP) will equip the venerable B-52H with new, fighter-like radar capabilities. This improve will improve navigation accuracy, concentrating on,… pic.twitter.com/IIIM1iqWPi
— Air Energy (@RealAirPower1) December 13, 2024
The delays have been consequently accompanied by value progress that triggered a Nunn-McCurdy breach earlier this yr. Underneath U.S. legislation, a major breach, outlined as a value enhance of a minimum of 15% from baseline, requires the service to inform Congress and assessment this system.
Whereas the B-52 radar breach was not deemed vital, which might have required the Division of Protection to certify this system as important to nationwide safety, the Air Pressure nonetheless examined the radar’s necessities to determine doable value financial savings.
Balancing Capabilities And Prices
As Gebara defined in the course of the Mitchell Institute occasion, the radar was deliberately based mostly on the F/A-18’s design as a result of it was available available on the market. “It could truly value us extra if we requested to design a brand new radar,” he stated.
Nevertheless, this method additionally meant reassessing which options have been actually needed for the B-52’s mission. With the F/A-18 being a multirole plane, lots of its radar’s features – particularly air-to-air – wouldn’t be wanted by the B-52, and eradicating them would imply lowering the complexity.
“We have now a sure variety of minimal issues that we have to do to have the ability to do our B-52 mission,” Gebara added. “A part of the price financial savings was what are these issues, to make it possible for we’re prioritizing treasured {dollars} on issues that we’d like, and never which might be good concepts or that we would like.”
That course of might imply the primary operational variations of the radar won’t embrace all the superior capabilities initially envisioned, with others to be added at a later stage. Nonetheless, Gebara famous that the AN/APQ-188 offers “alternatives for progress sooner or later,” suggesting that certainly extra features might be added later if funding permits.
Earlier this yr, the Air Pressure additionally issued a Request for Data (RFI) on potential different radar choices, although it burdened on the time that this was not a solicitation. When requested about the potential of choosing a distinct radar, Gebara was clear: “I don’t consider we’re going to pick out a distinct radar. I believe we’re persevering with with the radar we have now, and I consider it’s going to be flying to Edwards within the brief time period.”
Choosing a brand new radar at this stage would imply an extra enhance of the prices and, most significantly, one other delay to this system. This in flip would go away the bomber and not using a a lot wanted radar upgrades for a few years because the Air Pressure restructures its bomber drive.
The B-52J Modernization
The radar improve is only one a part of a wider modernization push for the Stratofortress, one of many Air Pressure’s oldest but most enduring platforms. One other vital effort, the Business Engine Alternative Program (CERP), is changing the B-52’s eight TF33 engines – out of manufacturing for the reason that Eighties – with Rolls-Royce F130s.
Just like the radar program, the engine initiative has skilled schedule slips, with operational use no longer anticipated earlier than 2033, three years later than initially deliberate. Full fleet re-engining will not be accomplished till 2036, in line with The Battle Zone.
Regardless of these delays, the modernization applications mirror the Air Pressure’s long-term dedication to the B-52. With its massive payload capability, international vary, and flexibility to fashionable weapons, the Stratofortress stays central to the U.S. nuclear and traditional strike mission.
In actual fact, as beforehand reported, the Air Pressure plans to maneuver to a two-type bomber fleet, based mostly on the brand new B-21 Raider stealth bomber and the upgraded B-52J. The upgrades would enable the B-52J to enrich the B-21 with long-range stand-off assault capabilities, whereas the stealth bomber would deal with penetrating closely defended airspaces.
