The current B52 is really the embodiment of conservative principals and can do attitude. He could have attacked the F-35 but he chose to attack a proven success in the BUFF.
I know his heart is in the right place. He's articulate but his time is past and it's time for Mike to go back to the JV Team.
Oh puh-lease! Do you know how old these B52’s are?
I bet they’re older than you. And do YOU drive a 1955 car to work?
Hate on Huck all you want. But he was brilliant last night.
There are not a lot of original parts left on these beasts. New electronics, new engines, new nearly everything that can be replaced.
I remember getting to Kadena where they were still running them out of there to bomb NV. They got moved to Guam because the locals protested them. So they swapped the KCs at Guam for the 52s. The locals never got that a KC going down loaded with fuel was just as dangerous to them.
Yeah I commented last night to a friend that he was wrong on multiple fronts. To me was his insinuation that they aren’t capable. I would argue that although the fleet is aging they are still modernized with navigation and mechanical upgrades. They are still IMHO the best long range bombers on the planet. Why fix what isnt broke?
“Seventy six big buffs lead the air parade ...”
Let’s see, cylindrical tube -checck, big swept wings - check, turbo fan jet engines - check. What’s not to like in a load hauler? Well it could use the engine upgrades they have been delaying for decades.
Not a single person on that stage served a minute in the military. Yet they are suddenly experts on what it needs?
His point wasn’t that they need to be taken out of service. His point was that we need to be producing new and better military planes and everything else. We need to be cutting edge.
Huck is right. The B-52 is our only vehicle to carry LR nuclear cruise missiles. It's also why the USAF has been pursuing a next gen strat bomber in recent years.
The B-52 will probably be around for another 30 years. It is used as a standoff weapons platform for cruise missiles. Yes it does have a large radar cross section, but with cruise missiles it can hit targets over 1000 miles away.
Those airplanes are about 60 years old now and each is several tons heavier with replacement wiring and stop-drill reinforcement plates all over the airframe. (They can't pull the original wiring out when they run new cables.) Way back in the 1980s crews were trying to sabotage them so they wouldn't have to risk their lives flying them.
Most successful airplane ever built IMHO!!!
I’m glad they’re still around to do the jobs that don’t have to be done with a B1 or B2.