Upgraded B-52 Stratofortress upto 2050

The USAF is to reportedly upgrade the long-in-the-tooth B-52 Stratofortress bomber to the B-52J variant, modernising the bomber’s defensive systems and avionics to keep the aircraft in frontline service till 2050. Other upgrades include crash-survivable

flight data recorder, a weapon system trainer, relocated targeting pod and new ejection seats.

The Stratofortress is being considered to be carrier for the USAF’s first-generation hypervelocity strike weapons integrated with the Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) and Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW), demonstrations of which are being accelerated under the Pentagon’s new Section 804 acquisition policy. The ARRW is currently slated for service from 2021 while the HCSW is expected to join the inventory in 2022. Flight tests of the winning HAWC design on a B-52 are expected to begin before Fiscal Year 2020.