Modernized B-52 Bomber & B-21 Fighter Jets Primed to Lead US Air Force Fleet in the Future

Video Above: B-52s, B-21s and GBSDs: The Costs and Importance of Deterrence Modernization

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

The Air Force is solidifying its bomber force structure for the future by advancing concepts of operation which prioritize and link an upgraded B-52 with the newly emerging B-21, combing a massively modernized decades old platform with a never-before-seen paradigm-changing new stealth bomber.

This is an interest mix, which suggests a number of key developments of great significance to the future of the Air Force, to include the progressive retirement of the B1-B bomber and sustained life of the much-upgraded B-2 aircraft. 

B-52 and B-21

While some enhancements are being made to the B1, such as ongoing efforts to configure its bomb bay to carry and fire hypersonic weapons, the service does plan to phase out the aircraft as sufficient numbers of B-21s arrive and the B-52 advances its ability to fire hypersonic weapons.

“The modernization efforts that are going into the B-52 are incredibly important for strategic deterrence,” Gen. Anthony Cotton, Commander of the Air Force’s Global Strike Command said in a service report. “The B-21 is a penetrating, daily flyer that we have to have, and it will be the preponderance of the bomber force as we drive down to a two tail force; it and the B-52. That’s what the United States of America is going to have as a bomber force.”

This two-fold trajectory represents an interesting dynamic for the Air Force which continues a deliberate and carefully analyzed balancing act between the need to engineer new platforms and the ability to sustain, upgrade and propel older, combat-tested platforms like the B-52.