[The Duke]

I’m sure she was a fine bird in her time, but I’m also pretty sure she should have been retired L-O-N-G ago.

[hinckley buzzard]

Why? To be replaced by what? The B52 is essentially only the second generation of metal clad bombers after the B17/B24/25 WWII era generation. Yeah, we had the B36 and B47, impressive craft in their own right, but they never made the impact the B52 did.

Like the battleship, the B52 represents the apex of evolution of a system. It would take a saltatory leap to render it obsolete. The B1 and B2 are out there, but when we needed a craft to loiter around the Afghan plain, only one airplane filled the bill.

[JRandomFreeper]

Why get rid of a winner that's cost effective?

/johnny

[mkjessup]

I’m sure she was a fine bird in her time, but I’m also pretty sure she should have been retired L-O-N-G ago.

I'm betting that YOU should have been retired long ago.

[cpdiii]

I’m sure she was a fine bird in her time, but I’m also pretty sure she should have been retired L-O-N-G ago.

Wrong Wrong Wrong. That beautiful beast is a bomb truck for convential arms. It can drop GPS guided bombs from great altitude. The GPS guided bombs will hit the intended target and the bad guy dies that day.

The B52 can also carry nuclear armed cruise missiles. The B52 can launch these missile hundreds of miles from the target. Those B52s will survive their mission, the target will not survive. The target will be a smoking cinder from a 250 kiloton fission fusion fission that the B52 delivered from a stand off distance.

High tech is great, but what is even better is low tech delivering the bang for a much lower price.m