Posted on 05/16/2012 4:26:22 AM PDT by TSgt
The Air Force wants its B-52s to keep flying until 2040, but the airplanes of that era won’t look like the ones we all remember from “Dr. Strangelove” — or even the bombers flying today.
According to an official story from the weekend, Lt. Gen. Jim Kowalski, the head of Global Strike Command, says the B-52 is set to receive a round of upgrades that will help both the airmen inside each one and also the top-level commanders moving them around on their maps. Even if that commander’s suit is a darker shade of blue:
These upgrades are integral to ensuring the B-52H is both effective and able to fully integrate with other services, as envisioned in the Air Sea Battle concept, according to command officials.
Among the upgrades is a guided “smart weapon” capability in the B-52H’s internal weapons bay, which provides a 66 percent increase in guided weapons payload. Another current program is an upgrade to the latest Advanced Targeting Pod, which will increase the B-52H effectiveness when performing close air support and other missions.
One of the test aircraft at Edwards AFB also featured an improved on-board communications upgrade called Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT). The CONECT program brings the B-52H from the analog into the digital age, according to command officials, providing an invaluable data link over which to pass mission and threat data.
With the new defense strategy placing a greater emphasis on the Pacific, it’s really important that our bombers are fully networked and integrated with the joint force, Kowalski said.
The mind races at the possibilities — a carrier strike group commander with B-52s integrated into her air plan? “Sensor netting,” as we’ve heard so much about, that lets a commander in Australia see what a bomber is tracking over the North Pacific? You can start to hear Navy Undersecretary Robert Work’s voice explaining how, of all things, the Air Force could help increase the effective size of the Navy’s fleet, along with his beloved P-8s, BAMS, E-2Ds and so on.
Part of the problem with imagining the future for this kind of integration, however, is a lack of clarity about exactly what scenarios U.S. planners are using to build it. This is where D.C.-based China fear-mongering gets a little frustrating, because it usually ends with people frowning severely, or arching their eyebrows, rather than spelling out what they believe would be involved with a potential future crisis.
Are American forces going to fight another Battle of Coral Sea with Chinese naval forces? Are they going to encounter a wall of “anti-access/area denial” missile and submarine attacks if they cross a keep-out “line of death?” Are they going to have to eject Chinese invaders from Taiwan? All three? Are American forces going to attack the Chinese mainland?
All that planning is on the high side, so it can be tough trying to put Kowalski’s comments into a larger context. But whatever Pentagon planners have in their red-edged briefing documents, this story makes it clear they’ll be counting on the 60 year-old B-52s to play a key part in it.
The problem is tooling. They can upgrade/fix the existing airframes with on hand equipment.
To “re-produce” a B52 Boeing would have to make all new tools. The line has been closed for years.
Nothing to do with UN. Has to do with “low observability” paint jobs.
Think “Air Superiority Blue” back when the F-15 was first introduced.
Not "UN".
"USN".
One little letter makes a HUGE difference.
See my screen-name for another example. ;'}
WOW; just WOW!!
Is that Photoshopped or is that real? How does it take-off from that short a platform?
Awwww, it’s PS’d, isn’t it?
Magnificent!
I’ve read that too, especially about the Schweinfurt raids. It turned out that the ball-bearing machinery was very sturdy and hard to kill without a direct hit. I’ve also heard that a single Strike Eagle with PGMs could do far more damage than a whole squadron of B-17s, since each bomb would be a direct or near-direct hit, instead of dozens or even hundreds of yards away. Direct hits from carpet bombing were more of an accident than a fact.
BUFS were one of the few aircraft that made our P-3s look like TIFS.
After WW II we determined that Allied bombing directly hit the target 6% of the time.
The 8th Air Force's bombers primary job in WWII was to draw out the Luftwaffe and to engaged them in high altitude combat. The bombing was a decoy and hitting a target was of secondary importance. Destroying enemy aircraft was job #1.
I was driving home from the Sierras to the bay area, i.e. crossing the central valley, just coming out of the foothills - and a B52 flew across in front of me at maybe 200 feet. Wow!
When I was with the 301st TFW at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth, TX. I was on the runway arming crew for our birds
F-4DS)> That day they had a full ORI and flushed all of their birds(52s)I was less the 75 yards from from runway. Talk about an experience...my ears still hurt to this day.The only thing better in my life was a backseat ride in an F-105 on a live bombing run at Ft.Hood and an F-4 backseat ride to Meridian, MS.Good memories for life.
“Nothing to do with UN. Has to do with “low observability” paint jobs......”
Oh, OK! I came from the ground pounder Olive Drab crowd. Don’t know about that blue stuff ;)
I don’t think its a ground pounder thing - I’m ex-army. Its more of a modeler thing. I used to build models long, long ago.
B-52s with their bays full of:
antimissile drones
‘Wild weasel’ drones
anti-personnel claymore drones
and providing commo links to operators near the battlefield.
The Navy could provide a carrier group to fill in the spaces, but the Army would be reduced to just providing the brooms (until the political idiots go for ‘nation building’ occupation).
Saw the aftermath of Arc Light strikes from helos many times. Lots of splinters. Only heard one once at somewhat close range. Insane long drawn out crackling of detonations. Being close would involve bowel control issues. hell, rocket attacks were bad enough. Hard to describe the feeling of helplessness.
domination and consequent subjugation is the objective. The military is a sledge hammer, not a scalpel. I understand the need for scalpels but some folks just don't seem to understand the need for sledgehammers. You claim our dumb bombs were wasteful during WW2 yet we walked away triumphant. Look at our track record since we started relying on PGMs. It's appalling. Our "victories" are victories in name only.
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