B-52 Turns 60, but Has Lots of Life Left
B-52 Turns 60, but Has Lots of Life Left - Air Force News
STAFF SGT. CHRISTOPHER HUBENTHAL / AIR FORCEA B-52 drops live guided bomb units as an F-15D Eagle follows during a June training exercise. The 60-year-old aircraft will soon receive its latest upgrade.
The B-52 is celebrating a big birthday this year — 60 — but unlike humans who feel the aches and pains of aging, the aircraft remains a premiere bombing machine that is expected to continue giving bad guys a real bad day through the 2040s, thanks to yet another upgrade.
“It’s a purely awesome machine,” said Senior Master Sgt. Daniel Dutton, B-52 command fleet manager for Global Strike Command. “It’s hard to put into words how well this aircraft was built and how well it’s been maintained over the last 50 or 60 years by our guys — out here on the flight line or deployed, it doesn’t matter.”
The bomber can carry nukes or provide close-air support by obliterating anyone shooting at U.S. troops, as it has in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
“When people ask, ‘What kind of armament, what kind of weapons can this thing carry?’ we basically say, ‘Well, pretty much the U.S. arsenal’ — granted the air-to-air role isn’t quite there yet,” said Col. Russell Hart, chief of the bomber operations division at Global Strike Command.
