Air Force maintenance teams are pulling a decommissioned B-1B Lancer bomber out of the boneyard and plan to put it back into active-duty service to replace another Lancer that was damaged in a fire.
The resurrected aircraft, nicknamed “Lancelot,” was retired to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, also known as the boneyard, almost three years ago, according to a photo caption of the aircraft in a news release.
The decision to dust off “Lancelot” and get it back into service was made following an April 2022 incident at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, in which another Lancer caught fire during “routine maintenance,” the base said at that time. An accident investigation board report said the fire caused nearly $15 million in damage to the aircraft.
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There is a congressional mandate to have an operational Lancer fleet of a certain size, but Air Force officials opted to recommission the retired bomber instead of restoring the damaged plane, given the extensive and expensive repairs that would be necessary.
“With projected repair costs to fix the fire-damaged aircraft expected to be cost-prohibitive, Air Force officials elected to regenerate ‘Lancelot,'” the service said Thursday in a press release.
A team with members from the 309th AMARG, Dyess' 7th Bomb…
