Air Force says B‑52 radar modernization crossed Nunn‑McCurdy significant threshold but not critical; affordability review narrowed requirements

Chairman Kelly asked officers whether the B‑52 radar modernization program, which has exceeded the Nunn‑McCurdy significant threshold, posed a risk of hitting the statute’s critical threshold. Acting Assistant Secretary Darlene Castello said the Air Force is ‘‘pretty confident’’ it will avoid a critical breach and has refined the program to deliver a minimum viable product for Global Strike Command.

“We conducted an affordability review when we first got the information about the pricing coming in higher than we expected,” Castello said. “We've refined the requirements down to a minimum viable product of what Global Strike really needs this to do as opposed to possibly other items. That doesn't mean we can't bring in capability later, but for now, we're focusing on getting this capability to the warfighter because it's needed.”

Castello told the committee the program office and industry have aligned on a common understanding of requirements after the affordability review. In earlier testimony the program office characterized the broader B‑52 modernization portfolio as a multibillion‑dollar effort that includes a commercial engine replacement, radars, communications suites, trainers, data links and crypto modernization; witnesses cited a $20,000,000,000 figure tied to the larger modernization effort in one exchange.

The subcommittee also heard that the program will follow statutory reporting and notification processes as the Air Force works through cost growth and requirement trades. No decision to cancel or pause the radar modernization was announced; instead witnesses described a path to proceed with a narrowed configuration intended to keep the program below the critical Nunn‑McCurdy threshold.