‘More with less’: Lacking parts, airmen scramble to keep B-52s flying

The B-52H Stratofortress has been in service for more than six decades .

Its original 1960s-era engines keep finding “new and creative” ways to break.

Stocks of spare parts are limited, and the industrial base needed to repair broken components is drying up.

The Air Force is resorting to an array of options to do so, up to and including a process called cannibalization.

The Pentagon in November awarded Pratt & Whitney a contract worth up to $870 million to sustain nearly 1,000 TF33s .

The deal provides funding for the firm to either make those parts itself or find other companies to take on the work.

Back shop airmen are working longer hours to fix broken parts even those that previously weren’t their responsibility to repair.