Today’s B-52 is quite different from the B-52 of the Vietnam era
By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
Famous for carpet bombing densely concentrated groups of Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, the classic US Air Force B-52 has surged into the 21st century as a massively sustained, upgraded and enhanced air combat platform poised to serve several more decades into the future.
Today’s B-52 is quite different from the B-52 of the Vietnam era, a large bomb truck blanketing enemy areas with large, unguided bombs to enable ground forces to maneuver and destroy enemy positions. One might think that such a large, non-stealthy platform such as the B-52 might be ill equipped for modern, great power warfare in a highly contested environment, yet weapons developers have gathered and incorporated a wide range of lessons learned from years of combat and integrated new generations of technology into the classic bomber. Today’s B-52 will not only have an entirely new, more survivable and fuel efficient engine but also be equipped with a new internal weapons bay, massively expanded weapons arsenal and long-range precision-guided cruise missiles.
A lesser known yet critical aspect of combat aircraft modernization is that, with some maintenance and structural support, air frames themselves can remain viable for years beyond their anticipated service-life. This is definitely the case with the B-52, as today’s B-52 operates with an entirely new sphere of technologies and air combat capability compared with the Vietnam-era fighter.
Lessons from Vietnam
The current B-52 technological composition and the concepts of operation with which it flies were likely heavily informed by what Air Force weapons developers learned from its combat experiences in Vietnam. For instance, large B-52s were shown to be quite vulnerable to North Vietnamese Air Defenses. During the War, 18 B-52s were lost in combat and 12 due to other circumstances, mostly over Vietnam. North Vietnamese forces effectively used SA-2 surface-to-air-missiles to destroy B-52s, something which makes sense given the altitudes the aircraft flew at and the kinds of bombs it attacked with.
An interesting essay written by the National Museum of the United States Air Force describes some of the tactical challenges B-52s encountered during the Vietnam War. One challenge, quite simply, was that during some operations like the famous Linebacker II, the bombers flew predictable routes which were seen and tracked by the North Vietnamese.
“The bombers flew the same routes every night and gave away the element of surprise.Already knowing the B-52s' route, North Vietnamese fighters reported the bombers' altitude to the SAM crews, who simply launched unguided SAMs to where they predicted the bombers would be,” the essay says.
B-52 & JDAMs
There may indeed be a connection between the vulnerability of lower-flying B-52s and the successful arrival of precision-guided, air dropped, high altitude bombs such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions during the Gulf War era. Clearly flying at higher altitudes, if supported by longer range sensors and weapons, can achieve a tactical impact while enabling crews to operate at safer stand-off distances. It would make sense that, following Vietnam, Pentagon weapons developers prioritized precision and range in their explorations of next-generation air attack weapons. Sure enough, the Pentagon debuted several precision-guided air bombs during the Gulf War in 1991.
It would make sense if the communications networking technology now arming the B-52 emerged from Vietnam-era combat lessons as well, as commanders learned the value of knowing enemy locations, sharing targeting detail and expediting connectivity between air and ground forces. With a new digital communications system called Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT), B-52 crews can receive mission and targeting updates while in-flight, enabling them to adjust to new combat information.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University