US Air Force launches North Star Readiness Campaign to stop escalating B-52 and B-1 bomber sustainment crisis

The US Air Force launched the North Star Readiness Campaign to arrest worsening B-52H and B-1B sustainment delays. Its initial work reduced mission-impairing parts cases from more than 450 to roughly 160 and cut some lateral-shipment times from over a week to 48-72 hours. The campaign coordinates depots, engineering, supply and operational units to identify bottlenecks across both bomber fleets. These process gains do not by themselves establish a fleetwide mission-capable rate, and long-term readiness still depends on aging-aircraft maintenance and parts availability at operational bases and depots.