Combat Aircraft visits Tinker AFB to see how the USAF maintains its B-1B Lancer fleet, a type that attracts one of its biggest servicing bills.
ROCKWELL’S SWING WING B 1B Lancer bomber hasn’t had an easy life. The original B-1 program was cancelled by President Carter in 1977, then reinstated in reduced quantities by President Reagan four years later as the B-1B, and it’s gained a reputation for being a very complex beast. But the type has proved to be enduring and will have racked up some 50 years of service by the time it’s retired around 2036.
The task of keeping the Lancer fleet ready for battle falls to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex (OC-ALC) at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. It provides depot maintenance for the type and has done so since 1988. Around a dozen B-1Bs enter the facility every year for programmed depot maintenance (PDM), a process each aircraft undergoes every five years.
‘There have been five major modifications to the B-1 bomber over its life’, explains William Baumann, director of the 567th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron (AMXS). From 1995 to 2000 the bomber went through the conventional mission upgrades, which transitioned the B-1 from a purely nuclear mission to the conventional …
