Boeing lands $400M USAF B-52H and B-1B bombers engineering contract.

Boeing has received a one-year, $400M contract to help the U.S. Air Force engineer Rockwell B-1B Lancer and Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bombers.

A USAF Air Force B-1B Lancer, assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB), South Dakota, lands at Andersen AFB, Guam, Dec. 4, 2017 (Photo: U.S. Air Force /Tech. Sgt. Richard P. Ebensberger)

The company will perform recurring and non-recurring aircraft engineering services under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (IDIQ), the Department of Defense said Friday 28 December. Locations of work include Tinker AF Base in Oklahoma, Edwards AFB in California and Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

USAF obligated $35.2M in fiscal year 2019 operations and maintenance funds at the time of award. The service branch intends to maintain its B-1B and B-52H planes until it starts to field B-21 Raider planes beginning in the mid-2020s. The B-1B began deliveries in 1986 and formally entered service with Strategic Air Command (SAC) as a nuclear bomber in 1986. By 1988, all 100 aircraft had been delivered. B-1s currently in inventory will be retired by 2036.