Free Republic

The B-52 sorties traveled from the United Kingdom to Romania and back. Here's why.. On Friday, March 4, American B-52 bombers flew a patrol from the UK, over Germany to Romania, and back. The bombers stayed within uncontested NATO airspace for the entire route, and the patrol was repeated on Monday, March 7. The sorties were unremarkable in many ways, except this time the flights took place against the shadow of Russia’s war on Ukraine. In light of that war, which the US has adamantly committed to not fighting, what was the most iconic Cold War bomber doing flying over...

One of the U.S. Air Force's Boeing B-52 bombers has been damaged after its wing clipped a fence while it was being moved around on an airbase in Louisiana. The bomber, also known as the Stratofortress, was being positioned in order to be put on display when the driver of a tow misjudged the distance between the plane's right wing and a metal perimeter fence. The fence appeared to have penetrated through the skin of the aircraft and punctured the right wing leaving a significant amount of structural damage and its starboard fuel tank ... [photos at link]

Rolls-Royce (OTCPK:RYCEY, OTCPK:RYCEF) is awarded a contract to provide upgraded engines for the U.S. Air Force's B-52 bomber fleet in an award that could grow to $2.6B, the Department of Defense announces, beating out General Electric (NYSE:GE) and incumbent Pratt & Whitney (NYSE:RTX). Rolls-Royce was given an initial six-year $501M base contract to supply 608 engines for installation on the Air Force's 76 active-duty and reserve B-52s, which could grow to $2.6B if all options are exercised

The Air Force has set an ambitious goal for the B-52 Stratofortress: Update the aircraft for the modern battlefield so the legendary bomber can continue flying combat missions at least 100 years after its first flight. Re-engining the venerable B-52 Stratofortress could keep the legendary bomber flying into the 2060s, and possibly beyond. New engines, such as Pratt & Whitney's PW800 commercial engine, promise greater reliability, fuel efficiency, and power. Today’s B-52 is a lot like the one Air Force Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Gebara, the director of strategic plans at the Air Force Global Strike Command, piloted early in...

The bits they were not able to recover. A B 52 with two MK 39 nuclear weapons has the engine catch fire, which ends up with the plane exploding, in mid air, but no before the pilot had ejected the two nuclear weapons. In addition 5 crew members ejected and survived and another 3 crew members perished. Of the two nuclear weapons, one landed safely after its parachute deployed. The other one's parachute did not deploy , hit the ground at 700 MPH and sank into a swamp in North Carolina. After digging for 40 feet and not finding the...

Flying in formation and dropping their mighty payloads together, the bombs from a B-52 attack fall so thickly that they look from a distance like a rain shower. With some 70,000 pounds of ordnance — up to 108 bombs in each plane — tumbling out of each B-52’s huge belly and from under its 185 ft wings, a carpet-bombing run by a Boeing Stratofortress leaves little in its wake. It pulverised cities in Vietnam in the 1960s, obliterated Iraq’s defences before Operation Desert Storm three decades later and scared the wits out of generations of Soviet leaders.

In threat to Iran, US sends heavy B-52H Stratofortress Bombers to Middle East via Israel FROM TIMES OF ISRAEL: In a highly irregular move, the B-52H Stratofortress planes were seen flying toward Israeli airspace on Saturday en route to the base where they will be stationed, likely in Qatar. The aircraft were spotted on civilian tracking software approaching Israel before they apparently turned off their transponders, rendering them invisible on those applications. It was the third time in the past year and a half that B-52 bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and other powerful munitions, have been...

The U.S. military deployed B-52 bombers to the Middle East Saturday, just days after the Trump administration announced a partial withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. Central Command said the U.S. Air Force B-52H “Stratofortress” aircrews conducted the mission on "short notice" to "deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies."“The ability to quickly move forces into, out of and around the theater to seize, retain and exploit the initiative is key to deterring potential aggression," said Lt. Gen. Greg Guillot, 9th Air Force commander."These missions help bomber aircrews gain familiarity with the region’s airspace and command,...

Russia’s advanced S-400 air defense batteries at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria have been quietly “deactivated,” according to Russian military sources and publications. This has not been officially confirmed or denied. One source said that today, not a single S-400 is operational anywhere in Syria. Three months ago, DEBKAfile’s military sources cited the Syrian military as reporting that the Russian S-400s posted outside the important Syrian military compound at Masyaf in the west had been “deactivated” indicating the shutdown of their radar systems. Our sources note that, although Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems have been deployed in...

By April 1972, the American military presence in Vietnam had largely been reduced to air power. North Vietnam launched their Easter Offensive — the largest military invasion since China crossed the Yalu River during the Korean War. Soon, the 5th Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam'(ARVN) was surrounded by three enemy divisions at An Loc, the capital of Binh Phuoc province. Their only hope of the defenders was American air power, calling on B-52s and AC-130 gunships to hammer the enemy infantry and armor. The ARVN troops were holding out, but badly needed supplies. The roads to...

B-52 crash site still haunts after 54 years Scott K. Fish, Special to the Piscataquis Observer • March 20, 2017 The B-52C plane wreckage hanging from trees, scattered about the ground on top of Elephant Mountain in Greenville, stays with me as much as any Maine “place of interest” I’ve visited. The site haunts me. A while ago, spending a weekend in Greenville, Marlene and I, over breakfast at Kelly’s Landing, searched local newspapers and brochures for things to do around Moosehead Lake. I found a short paragraph about U.S. Air Force plane wreckage, left much as it was on...

The U.S. Air Force has deployed at least 20 missiles that could zap the military electronics of North Korea or Iran with high-power microwaves, rendering their military capabilities virtually useless without causing any fatalities, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively. Known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), the missiles were built by Boeing's Phantom Works for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and tested successfully in 2012. They have not been operational until now. The microwave weapons are fitted into an air-launched cruise missile and delivered from B-52 bombers. With a range of 700 miles, they can fly...

May 18, 2018 Barre, Vermont – December 9, 1960 B-52 Stratofortress U.S. Air Force Photo On December 9, 1960, a B-52 Stratofortress, (Ser. No. 55-0114), left Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts, for a training flight that would take it over upstate New York. While over the Adirondack Mountians the aircraft experienced a significant drop in altitude and the crew, believing the aircraft was going to crash, ejected. After all eight crewmen left the aircraft, the B-52 continued on for nearly one-hundred miles before crashing on the outskirts of Barre, Vermont, near the Plainfield town line. The plane exploded...

The US Air Force is seeking to modify its B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers to accommodate carrying and delivering the so-called “mother of all bombs,” a creative nickname given to the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) weapon, according to a new report. The bomb made waves last April when a US military plane dropped a GBU-43/B MOAB on an allegedly Daesh-run terrorist camp in Afghanistan. The bomb is regarded as the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the US weapons arsenal. April 13, 2017, marked the first employment of the bomb in combat. The Air Force is seeking information from industry regarding...

A training exercise involving U.S. B-52 bombers and South Korean planes was scrapped earlier this week after the South Korean government expressed concerns that it could generate tensions before the summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to U.S. officials. The move follows repeated assertions by the Trump administration that it is keeping up a campaign of maximum economic and military pressure until North Korea gives up its nuclear-weapons programs. The South Koreans asked not to participate in what was intended to be a three-nation air drill involving the U.S., South Korea and...

US B-52 bomber unleashes record-setting payload FEBRUARY 7, 2018 A US Air Force B-52 bomber launched a record-setting series of strikes this week in northern Afghanistan — dropping 24 precision-guided munitions on Taliban fighting positions during 96 hours of air operations “to destroy insurgent revenue sources, training facilities, and support networks,” according to US Forces Afghanistan. The 24 precision-guided munitions dropped by the B-52 Stratofortress are the most ever dropped by one of the Air Force’s oldest active aircraft, the service said in a press release. Weighing 185,000 pounds, the B-52 first entered service in the 1950s during the height...

A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress, America’s longest-serving bomber, set a new record for the most smart bombs dropped on the Taliban in Afghanistan, the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan revealed Tuesday. Shattering the previous record set in November, the American bomber dropped 24 precision-guided munitions during a 96-hour air campaign against Taliban training and narcotics facilities in Afghanistan, Fox News reports. The conventional rotary configuration on board allows the B-52s to easily unleash hell on the terrorists. “The Taliban have nowhere to hide,” Gen. John Nicholson, the unit commander, reportedly said in a statement. “There will be no safe haven for any...

America’s fleet of B-52H Stratofortress nuclear bombers are on track to outlast their engines, and the planes need new ones to remain viable past 2030. The U.S. Air Force, which received its first B-52H during the Kennedy administration, wants to replace existing engines with cheaper, more power ones to keep the lumbering jets flying into all the way into the 2040s.

The Air Force is surging forward with a massive, fleet-wide modernization overhaul of the battle-tested, Vietnam-era B-52 bomber, an iconic airborne workhorse for the U.S. military dating back to the 1960s. Engineers are now equipping all 76 of the Air Force B-52s with digital data-links, moving-map displays, next-generation avionics, new radios and an ability to both carry more weapons internally and integrate new, high-tech weapons as they emerge, service officials said.

AMERICAN military chiefs are sending nuclear bombers to the Korean peninsula as tensions in the region reach breaking point. North Korea and the US have been teetering on the brink of war for months after Kim Jong-un carried out a series of controversial missile launches. Earlier this week, trigger-happy Kim pushed his luck once more when he fired off four ballistic missiles into the seas near Japan. Now President Donald Trump is reportedly flying in B-1 and B-52 bombers – built to carry nuclear bombs – to show he’s had enough. South Korea and the US have also started their...