![]() ![]() ![]() A B-2 gets a $60 million year-long overhaul every seven years, and has to be housed in a climate-controlled hangar for the other six. The B-2’s radar-eluding design proved less effective than advertised, and the maintenance it demanded made it too expensive even for the Pentagon. Since then, per arms-control pacts with Russia, gear that the B-1 needs to carry and launch atomic weapons has been stripped from the aircraft, eliminating its nuclear deterrence capability against atomic-club wanna-bes like Iran and North Korea. Plus, the B-1’s primary reason for being-nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union-disappeared along with the Soviet Union nearly 30 years ago. It also can be dangerous, as changing a plane’s wingspan from 137 to 79 feet in midflight poses unique challenges. When it’s making a bombing run, it sweeps its wings back, allowing it to scream low and fast toward its target. Spreading those wings allows it to take off heavy with weapons and fuel by generating extra lift. The Air Force built both the B-1, between 19, and B-2, between 19, with supposed cutting-edge technologies that didn’t age well (and they were hyped, even when new). Than the B-1s, and 30 years older than the B-2s. At the same time, it decided to extend the B-52’s life and keep them flying beyond 90 years, even though they’re at least 22 years older Remaining in active service-in the 2030s, nearly a decade earlier than planned. The Air Force decided in 2018 to retire the two newest ones- the 62 B-1s and 20 B-2s In fact, the two bombers built after the B-52-the B-1 and B-2-are going to be sent to the boneyard well before the B-52 finishes its tour of duty. ![]() While the B-52’s latest re-enlistment says a lot about the durability and moxie of this Boeing behemoth, it also speaks volumes about the hazards of building bespoke gold-plated bombers. “Happy to see them still in the air keeping us safe.” (BUFF is the bomber’s polite nickname among those who fly and maintain it, meaning Big Ugly Fat Fellow). “Nothing like an old BUFF to put the fear of god into the enemy,” one posted on the unit’s Facebook page Old B-52 hands were delighted at the second revived B-52’s return to the 307th Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Its bones-the aluminum airframe-were rugged and built to last. It wasn’t crammed with gear, like the B-1 and B-2 that followed it, that make modifications complicated and costly. The bomber was built with plenty of extra space on board for not-yet-invented weapons and electronics. It’s also 23 percent higher than the $400 billion the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost from 2017 to 2026.īoeing churned out 744 B-52s at plants in Seattle, Washington, and Wichita, Kansas, over 10 years beginning in 1952. That Cold War trio is slated to cost $494 billion between 20, within spitting distance of a half-trillion dollars. reliance on a nuclear “triad” made up of bombers, and of missiles fired from land and submarines. Just as importantly, the B-52 highlights the continuing and costly U.S. They make for a double-edged sword: reassuring to allies but fraught with the possibility that a mistake could lead to war. The bombers-just like the Russian Tu-95 bombers probing air space near Alaska in May-prowl the world’s skies, asserting a nation’s interest in what is happening below. They’ve been buzzing the Baltic Sea near Russia as well. Out of Guam-within striking distance of China-for more than a decade. Despite their advanced age, B-52s continue to contribute: They’ve recently been dispatched to the Middle East to deter Iran. The first left Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in 2015, and the second on May 14, to return to active duty, joining other B-52s still in service. Fact is, a pair of B-52 Stratofortresses, which came off the assembly line during the Kennedy Administration, have been roused from their well-deserved retirement. ![]()
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