Video Above: Air Force Says “We Are Going to Keep the B-52 For a While”
By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven
(Washington, D.C.) When it burst onto the scene as a large platform bomber in the mid 1950s, few developers might have envisioned what is happening now. The classic bomber endures to fight another day, or decades one might say, because the Air Force’s 2022 budget request includes hundreds of millions for a massive B-52 upgrade and overhaul.
Could the bomber, known for carpet bombing in Vietnam, actually fly for 100 years? The airplane is approaching 70-years of operational service now, and the scope and technological sophistication of the ongoing upgrades may well sustain the platform for several more decades.
“$233 million is added to the B-52 budget for the most comprehensive modernization in its history, including new engines, new radar and communications systems,” Maj. Gen. James Peccia, Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget, told reporters according to a Pentagon transcript.
How could this be possible? Upgrades of the B-52 have been underway for many years now, based upon the interesting premise that, despite decades of service, B-52 airframes are still viable and holding up well. Certainly there may be structural reinforcements or added components and materials, yet the fuselage of the bomber, developers have explained, remains structurally quite sound.
Beyond that general baseline, virtually all other aspects of the B-52 are becoming entirely new, a set of technological additions and adaptations which succeed in basically engineering the bomber as a new aircraft. Of course the aircraft has new avionics, digital moving map displays and a new generation of electronics, yet other kinds of adaptations may account for the largest margin of difference. A complete re-engining of the aircraft is perhaps among the most recent upgrades, a change likely to not only massively extend service life but also greatly enhance performance in areas such as thrust, vectoring and fuel efficiency.
