B-52 Bomber Gets New Lease of Life

Published on Friday, 04 November 2011 09:12

	By Kevin Milne Follow @_AsktheExperts_

Like the winged angel of death, the B-52 bomber, lovingly nicked-named BUFF (Big Ugly Fat/Flying F***er/Fellow) is forever linked to the image of an apocalyptic end of days. 

During the Cold War, the B-52 was one of the most recognisable deterrents to a nations enemy, a herald of destruction and drove fear into those who would oppose their masters.

It was announced in September that the US Senate has approved an $88 million upgrade to the B-52 bomber that will see the flying death dealer continue its nuclear deterrent well into 2040s.  According to Armed Forces International website, the aircraft will get the CONECT (Combat Network Communications) system, enhancing the aircraft's mission and location awareness and giving it new levels of communications capability with other parts of the US military inventory.

Spanning the ages, the BUFF has been a part of the US military arsenal since the Cold War origins as part of America’s Strategic Air Command defence/offence plan for USSR attacks, through the Vietnam War and into the Gulf War and today’s Middle East operations.

With this announcement that the BUFF is to be given a new lease of life, that could see the aircraft in service up to 2044, is this type of weapon still a necessity in today’s modern warfare?

In the opinion of Thomas Stagliano, a Senior Aerospace Engineer at ITT Defence, the BUFF is not only operationally sound but also a continuing asset to the US military.  He said:

“With bombers located in the continental USA and Guam, the US is capable of reaching out and touching someone very quickly with conventional weapons (gravity bombs or cruise missiles), without creating a major political nightmare by launching ballistic missiles, which can only be used once while the B-52Hs were last built in 1963 and have supported many military actions.

“The B-52H was designed or maintained to operate in a nuclear disturbed RF and radiation environment. The 747 and C-17 aircraft are not as capable and converting them would be expensive.”

Supporting the continued use of this aircraft Mike Osborne, an Engineer at Honeywell Aerospace, made the point that the new upgraded bomber will only be similar in external looks to that of the current operational aircraft.  He said:

“The B-52 has sufficient space to add more systems as they have become available.

“Add to that the reduction in volume for each system and the increase in capability of those systems, and the B-52 of today is really only structurally the same as it was almost 60 years ago.”

Impressed by the overhaul and continuing usage of the BUFF, former BAE Systems engineer Phillip Wyld is pleasantly surprised by the longevity of the flying machine, saying:

“And they thought the Cranberry had a long service life?

“The BUFF may be slow and ugly, but if you have ever watched the cloud of dust hit the air and felt the ground shake when she drops her full complement on some poor beggars head, then shock and awe become a reality.”