Upgrade to benefit Tinker
U.S. Air Force contract for software sustainment program on B-1 bombers worth $84 million

BY DEBBIE BLOSSOM Comments 1
Published: October 31, 2009

Tinker Air Force Base will benefit from an $84 million U.S. Air Force contract with Boeing Co. for additional upgrades of the B-1B Lancer bomber fleet’s avionics software.

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The award continues a software-sustainment program that has continually updated and improved the B-1’s operational capabilities since the aircraft entered service in 1989. This new contract authorizes Boeing to start work on the next upgrade level, called Sustainment Block 16.

Boeing engineers in Oklahoma City and Long Beach, Calif., deliver the latest avionics software once a year for the Air Force’s fleet of 66 B-1s, Boeing spokeswoman Jennifer Hogan said.

Some of the 140 Boeing engineers here work at Tinker, and others are at the site across from the base. The software is tested in labs and on mock planes on the base, Hogan said.

"Every 12 months the B-1 gets new software,” which makes the aircraft perform better, she said. It takes 18 months for each software sequence to be developed and tested.

Earlier software upgrade SB 14 is in flight test at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and will be delivered to the Air Force in 2011. SB 15 will be delivered in 2012, and design and development work for SB 16 will begin immediately, Hogan said.

Each software block includes changes to navigation, weapon delivery, radar, electrical multiplexing, communication and navigation management system software, and controls and displays.

"We are honored to continue providing these upgrades to the Air Force and are excited about all the B-1 potential that will be provided with SB 16,” said Mahesh Reddy, the B-1 program director for Boeing in California. "This major block will enhance the aircraft’s color cockpit displays, data link, radar and navigation in ways that will significantly improve B-1 aircrews’ ability to execute their missions.”

Another B-1 milestone that Boeing accomplished this year was the July 30 first flight of a B-1 upgraded with the Fully Integrated Data Link.

That upgrade includes new processors, color displays and communications architecture, enhancing B-1 crews’ situational awareness and communications capability.

The FIDL aircraft is also in flight tests at Edwards.