1: America`s Most iconic Bomber. Some designs and planes are like forever… you cannot retire them
2: Made by Boeing first Flight on 15 April 1952. They are still going strong. Serve USAF Strategic force and do most of the testing for its new weapons and for NASA.
3: B-52 Flew Deterrence Missions for America. There was a time when 12- B-52 where always in air over Greenland for 1st strike missions against the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War.
4: B-52 can carry 12 AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles. These ALCM have Range of 3700 KM.
5: These AGM-129 carry W80 Nuclear warheads. Their total yield is 150 KT TNT.
6: B-52 can also carry 20 AGM-86 ALCM, they have lesser range thus less heavy but more advance
7: Their range is 2400 km. due to lesser asthetics they can be carried inside internal weapons bay
8: The main tactic is to fire enough AGM-86 and to overwhelm Soviet missile defenses with saturation strikes
9: For Conventional weapons strikes, B-52 can carry AGM-84 Harpoon missiles, joint direct-attack munitions (JDAM), AGM-142 Raptor missiles, and AGM-86C (CALCM)
10: B-52 was used extensively during Vietnam war, & flew hundreds of missions over North Vietnam
11: In Iraq war also it struck wide area troop concentration. fixed installations and bunkers
12: But with all its glory, it failed in Afghanistan.
13: B-52 bomber’s greatest long-term strength has proven to be its flexibility and its ability to adopt newer weapons. This is mainly because of its huge size and its massive 8 engines.
14: Now America is testing its new AGM-183A Hypersonic Weapon on B-52.
15: USAF has 76 B-52`s in service and is upgrading them with new data links and upgraded communications suites, as well as additional countermeasures and navigation features, which mean more life for decades.
16: Combining a remarkably resilient airframe with a modular design approach, the B-52 bomber will be among America’s longest-serving aircraft when it eventually retires in the 2050s.