By Maya Carlin, Warrior Contributor, Weapons
Last month, two U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers landed in Indonesia, marking the platform’s first deployment to that country.
The intercontinental range strategic bombers landed at the Kualanamu International Airport on the island of Sumatra, which is significant since Indonesia had previously refused to permanently host American military aircraft on its territory.
However, due to the growing threat of China’s defense capabilities in the Western Pacific, the presence of the B-52s on the island is critical for U.S. security interests. Despite being introduced more than seventy years ago, the B-52 continues to represent the mainstay of the Air Force’s bomber fleet.
In fact, the B-52H bombers are expected to receive a variety of upgrades overtime that will allow the platform to remain in service through 2050.
Introducing the B-52 Stratofortress
Following the Second World War, the U.S. desired a new strategic bomber” capable of carrying out the strategic mission without dependence upon advanced and intermediate bases controlled by other countries.” By the mid-1950’s, the first variant to fly the skies, followed closely by the B-52B variant. In total, 744 B-52 were constructed, with the last being a B-52H model delivered in the early 1960’s. Today, 76 airframes remain in the Air Force’s inventory. Around two-thirds of those airframes are active with the 2ndBomb Wing and 5thBomb Wing, while one third remain in reserve with the 307thBomb Wing. Additionally, 12 of these airframes have been relegated to long-term storage at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB) “Boneyard.”
The most modern B-52H model can carry up to 20 air-launched cruise missiles, in addition to conventional cruise missiles. Due to various upgrades over the years, the B-52 also has the carrying capacity to fire more Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. Back in 2005, the Air Force awarded Boeing a contract to develop the B-52H’s combat network communications technology (CONECT) program, which enables real-time, in-flight intelligence information sharing. Additionally, this variant has been fitted with a more fuel-efficient commercial engine, among other improvements.
B-52 destroys landing lights at RIAT Air Show
This week, the B-52H Stratofortress made quite the entrance during the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) airshow. When performing a crab walk demo on the RAF Fairford’s runway, the airframe’s port-sing wing outrigger wheel wipes out the landing lights. According to the Aviation Geek Club, the B-52H possesses a crosswind landing gear system meant to aid crew in windy conditions.
“According to a BUFF driver ‘you can’t slip the airplane very much because you’ll start to drag the wing, which is disastrous. So, they installed a cross-wind landing gear system that allowed the plane to be cranked up to 20 degrees off center.’ As we recently explained the mighty BUFF features the so-called outrigger wheels, or just outriggers. Most aircraft that have a narrow main landing gear use them, including the AV-8 Harrier.” The BUFF driver also added that ‘Between 18 and 21 lights were taken out by the port side wing. I’m pretty sure people didn’t notice at the time. It was only when I got home and reviewed my footage that I saw the wrecking ball of the port-side outrigger.’”
Maya Carlin, a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. This was originally posted on 19FortyFive.com as part of a syndication agreement to publish their content. You can find more of their content at 19FortyFive.com.
