B-52 Bomber Could Fly for 100 Years

Video Above: Air Force Bomber Plan: B-2, B-52 & B-1 to Fly into 2040

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

It is by no means beyond the realm of the possible to envision a scenario wherein the classic, Vietnam-era B-52 flies for 100 years. The aircraft is now 70-years old and may fly into the coming decades due to a series of recent and upcoming upgrades.

Years ago, Air Force weapons developers recognized that the B-52 airframes themselves were viable, despite the age of the aircraft. Working within this understanding, engineers have in recent years been reinforcing the structure of the airframe and integrating a wide sphere of paradigm-changing upgrades. These include a new CONECT radio system capable of using digital networking to share real-time intelligence data in flight, keeping pilots aware of fast-emerging new targeting information.

B-52

Even more recently, the B-52 has been in the process of being prepared to fire air-launched hypersonic weapons, cruise missiles and even yet-to-exist weapons. The most recent development has been efforts to replace its legacy engine with a new, more fuel efficient commercial engine designed to reduce fuel burn and maintenance requirements.

“This brings an ability to bring in more reliable piston engines and a digital backbone. If I want to be effective in an electronic attack, I need to have that digital side,” former Air Force Global Strike Commander Gen. Tim Ray told The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in a video interview last year.

Along with an entirely new radar system, the B-52 is integrating new communications and networking technologies, which include a rapid, retargeting low-frequency radio replacement to support nuclear weapons communications. Not only that, but perhaps of greatest significance, the datalink radio communications technology enables flight crews to receive intelligence updates and real-time targeting adjustments in flight, removing the need for attack crews to rely purely on pre-mission intelligence data.