Venerable Vietnam-era B-52 may outlive snazzier younger bombers
UNITED STATES: The B-52, which people have called ‘‘ageing’’ seemingly for ages, is now likely to outlive its younger, snazzier brother bombers, the swing-wing B-1 and the stealthy B-2.
US Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced yesterday that her service will begin retiring the B-1 and B-2 fleets as soon as it has built enough B-21s, the nextgeneration bomber that is still on the drawing board and is expected to begin entering service in the mid-2020s. The pace of retirement will depend on how quickly the B-21 is acquired.
An air force spokeswoman, Ann Stefanek, said the B-1 and B-2 were likely to keep flying into the early 2030s.
The B-52 is expected to soar past those timelines, remaining part of the combat force until the mid-21st century.
Aware of the political ramifications of any change in the structure of the bomber force, Wilson said the number of bomber bases would not shrink.
‘‘If the force structure we have proposed is supported by the Congress, bases that have bombers now will have bombers in the future,’’ she said. ‘‘They will be B-52s and B-21s.’’
Officially nicknamed the Stratofortress and informally known as the Big Ugly Fat Fellow, the B-52 gained lasting fame in the Vietnam War as an aerial terror. It is scheduled to stay in service until 2050, assuming it gets planned upgrades, including new engines. In its 2019 budget request yesterday, the air force asked for US$280 million (NZ$386m) for B-52 upgrades.
Boeing built eight models of the B-52 between 1952 and 1962. There are 75 planes left, split between Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and Barksdale Air Force in Louisiana. No longer the saturation bomber associated with the Vietnam War, the B-52 has been updated and adapted to a range of combat missions. It has been used extensively in the war in Afghanistan as well as in the air campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
‘‘The aircraft has played a leading role in air force operations for decades, and was recently reconfigured with a conventional rotary launcher to increase its reach and lethality,’’ the US military said in announcing the Afghanistan attack.
The B-1 was initially developed in the 1970s, cancelled, and then revived by President Ronald Reagan. It originally was designed for either nuclear or conventional attack but is now strictly for nonnuclear combat.
The B-2, the world’s first radarevading bomber, was developed in secrecy by Northrop in the 1980s and was initially best known for its stunning price tag of more than US $1 billion per aircraft, of which 21 were built.
The air force now has 20 B-2s, all based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, and 62 B-1s at several bases. –AP