Miraculously, B-52 Stratofortress Can Last Up to a Century

        Seventy years after its first flight on April 15,1952, the B-52 Stratofortress is still considered the most capable bomber ever to have served in the United States Military or that of any western country, with the aircraft having been produced from 1952 to 1962 and seen extensive improvements to its performance made both during that time and since.

Video Source: Out Of Your Mind

1. Relevancy. 

        The B-52 was conceived in the immediate aftermath of a successful strategic bombing campaign against Japan. Air Force planners wanted a long-range strike aircraft that wouldn’t require forward bases to accomplish their missions the way B-29s had needed bases in the Mariana Islands. 

The design of the B-52 gradually evolved during its early design phase into a swept-wing aircraft with eight jet engines that could fly many thousands of miles without refueling. Its range today is stated at 8,800 miles when cruising at 525 miles per hour with a 35ton bomb load, but it can be refueled in the air to fly much farther. Equipped with cruise missiles and other standoff munitions, it can attack targets anywhere in the world quickly from bases in the U.S. That’s what makes long-range bombers different from any other combat system in the joint force.

2. Versatility 

        The B-52 doesn’t just have long legs and a large payload. Unlike the B-1 Lancer, a supersonic bomber that first flew in 1974, the B-52 can perform nuclear deterrence missions. And unlike the B-2 Spirit that first flew in 1989, the B-52 exists in sufficient numbers to sustain conventional combat missions indefinitely against remote adversaries.

Long-range strike missions, nuclear or conventional, are just the beginning. B-52 crews demonstrated in Afghanistan that they could provide close air support to troops on the ground using a variety of precision-guided munitions. They also can accomplish maritime surveillance and sea control over vast areas, laying mines if necessary, with two bombers covering 140,000 square miles of ocean in two hours. And their ability to remain airborne for many hours makes them candidates for conducting reconnaissance or electronic jamming in support of other forces.

3. Survivability

        However, the bomber has been equipped with electronic countermeasures, towed decoys and various other aids designed to foil the efforts of adversaries to target it. The Air Force stopped assigning nuclear gravity bombs to the B-52 in 2010, recognizing that its utility in the deterrence mission depended on attacking targets with cruise missiles from beyond the range of enemy defenses.

The Air Force currently plans to equip the B-52 with a very stealthy Long Range Standoff weapon to be built by Raytheon TechnologiesRTX -0.7% that will ease the challenge of penetrating defenses in order to hold strategic targets at risk. With a range of 1,500 miles, LRSO will keep B-52 survivable in the nuclear deterrence mission for decades to come. The same weapon may be adapted for use in conventional missions if other standoff weapons prove inadequate to safely attack the full array of potential targets presented by enemies in the future.

4. Availability

        One reason the Air Force intends to keep flying the B-52 through 2050 is that on any given day, most of the Stratofortresses in the fleet are ready for combat on short notice. In 2019, the mission-capable rate for the B-52 was 66%, significantly better than the B-2 bomber’s 60% rate and substantially better than the B-1 bomber’s 46% rate. The higher availability rate coupled with the larger number of B-52s in the current force means that on many days, most of the long-range strike aircraft available for combat are B-52s.