The B-52H’s are still around because they’ve been rebuilt so much the crews that flew the original B-52H’s built in 1960-1962 would not recognize the inside of the planes now on the flight line. And even less so if the proposal to re-engine the B-52H planes with four General Electric F103 (the military version of the CF6-80) jet engines become reality.
The only bad part of a re-engine is no more black smoke coming from those B-52s at takeoff. :0
Heck, I flew them at Minot a decade later. This was about the that some serious upgrades and modifications began. I don’t recognize most of the stuff at the Nav and RN stations.
The AF, in its infinite wisdom, passed up on some serious electronic, structural, and power plan changes in the mid 1970’s because by the end of that decade the BUFFs would be totally replaced by the B-1s. R I G H T !!!