I think that if this truly was an ‘intentional’ as opposed to an ‘accident’ that the intended recipient is Vladimir Putin. Putin has been pushing his Bear bombers close to NATO airspace on recon flights.
The ‘message’ could be: “Don’t Eff with a USAF bomber because he might be carrying nukes.”
Putin flies his bombers near our assets in order to show potential client states like Iran and North Korea that Russia offers an alternative counter-balance to the U.S.
Loading nukes onto a B-52 means nothing to Russia in that context.
However, nuclear-armed, flying B-52’s *do* mean something to North Korea and Syria and Iran...as does Israel’s open statement that Damascus will be wiped out if Syria uses chems or nukes.
Both statements by the U.S. with visible nukes on the B-52 as well as Israel’s diplomatic punch were coordinated messages.
...and the lack of “spontaneous” protests by the easily incited crowds in the target countries shows that the leadership in question “got” the message.