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President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal to ensure it is at the "top of the pack," saying the United States has fallen behind in its atomic weapons capacity. In a Reuters interview, Trump also complained about Russian deployment of a cruise missile in violation of an arms control treaty and said he would raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin when and if they meet. On another front, Trump said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea "very easily if they want to," ratcheting up pressure...

Oh dear! Our weapons of mass destruction seem to be falling apart after years of neglect: B-52 Loses Engine While Flying Over North Dakota. I know UpNorthLurkin is safely lurkin’ in Arizona, butt I do hope that the rest of our ND contingent are okay; Bakken Wag, JLH and the rest.Now might be a good time to point out how opportune the election and impending inauguration of Donald J. Trump was. Given the state of readiness of our current armed forces under the watchful eye of Barry these past 8 years we need somebody who can MAGA. Because imagine if...

American B-52 Stratofortress bombers have been sent for their first Middle East operational deployment since the 1991 Gulf War 26 years ago. The aircraft are flying from Qatar to bomb Islamic State targets. An undisclosed number of B-52s have arrived at the Al Udeid Air Base on Sunday, the US Air Force said. “The B-52 will provide the coalition continued precision and deliver desired airpower effects,” Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., commander, US Air Forces Central Command said in the statement. The B-52 is a long-range multi-purpose heavy bomber. The Central Command last used them during Operation Desert Storm...

The U.S. Air Force deployed B-52 bombers to Qatar on Saturday to join the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the first time they have been based in the Middle East since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. U.S. Air Forces Central Command said it last flew the long-range bombers operationally in the region in May 2006 as part of the war in Afghanistan, and during a U.S.-led military exercise in Jordan in May 2015. "The B-52 demonstrates our continued resolve to apply persistent pressure on Daesh and defend the region in any future contingency," said...

On 16 January 1991, seven Boeing B-52Gs fully loaded with AGM-86C conventional air-launched cruise missiles took flight from Barksdale AFB in Louisiana on a top-secret mission to destroy targets inside Iraq. Those 35h missions were the first combat sorties of Operation Desert Storm. Lesser known is that the mission, dubbed Secret Squirrel, also marked the combat debut of the AGM-86C, with 35 weapons fired and 85-95% of targets successfully destroyed, according to the US air force. A derivative of the nuclear-tipped AGM-86B, the B-52G would not have been deployed if only armed with nuclear cruise missiles and unguided bombs. Now,...

The Boeing B-52H is the vintage bomber that just won’t quit, and now the Cold War-era “Stratofortress” is being outfitted with one of America’s newest and longest-range conventional cruise missiles. Lockheed Martin has been put on contract to arm the 54-year-old aircraft – which has outlived many of those who predicted its retirement – with the extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Weapon (JASSM) under a $9.1 million contract announced earlier this month. In a statement to Flightglobal, LM director of long-range strike systems Jason Denney confirms that the B-52 will be updated to carry the turbofan engine-powered cruise missile internally on...

The United States flew two B-52 bombers over the weekend near man-made islands constructed by China in the South China Sea, a U.S. official told The Hill, in a clear challenge to China's territorial claims to the area. The bombers made one pass within 12 nautical miles of the islands...

TWO B-52 bombers flew 44 hours non-stop from Louisiana to the Northern Territory on a simulated bombing run last month — all to deliver a message to China. The lumbering, 1950s vintage dinosaurs lifted off from the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, United States, on July 1. Their mission: to be BAAD. That’s military speak for yet more military speak: “bomber assurance and deterrence”. Translated, it means sending a message to Australia and the nations of South East Asia that the United States is willing and capable of assisting its allies. It was also a demonstration — to China...

This photo shows the entire arsenal of a B-52 Strartofortress. The standard loadout for this plane includes eight AGM-84 Harpoon missiles, four AGM-142 Raptor missiles, 51 500lb bombs, 30 1,000lb bombs, 20 AGM-86C conventional air-launched cruise missiles (CALCM), 12 joint stand-off weapons (JSOW), 12 joint direct-attack munitions (JDAM) and 16 wind-corrected munitions dispensers (WCMD), according to Airforce-technology.com. In 1955, when the first Boeing B-52 Stratofortress became operational, nobody would have imagined that the plane would likely remain in service for nearly 100 years. Today, that's exactly what the US Air Force has in mind for this iconic aircraft. Around 750...

It was at the vanguard of aviation technology in the 1950s, and it's still going strong today: meet the B-52 Stratofortress.The B-52 heavy bomber continues to show that old doesn't have to mean outdated, even in an era of rapid technological change. Just the opposite: through good maintenance and occasional updates, vintage tech can hold its own against flashier but more expensive, and more finicky, next-generation (and next-next-next-generation, even) designs. The very first flight of a Boeing B-52 took place 60 years ago this weekend.

The B-52 has only been able to carry smart weapons on its external pylons, with its internal weapons bay being relegated to nuclear and dumb bombs, as well as some older cruise missiles. Now, the iconic 60 year old Stratofortress is finally getting a new 'smart' rotary weapons rack and other upgrades that will more than double its smart weapons punch. You could say that the B-52's empty weapons bay has been the most under-utilized real estate in the entire USAF. Even as the B-52's utility morphed over the decades (from a nuclear interdiction option, to a carpet bomber,...

The Air Force is working to get a B-52 bomber back into service after it sat collecting dust for seven years at the famous Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. On Feb. 13, the B-52H—with the serial number 61–0007—left the desert for its new home with the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. This is the first time the Air Force has “regenerated” one of these bombers from the Boneyard back to active duty.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday vigorously endorsed an Air Force plan to build a next-generation strategic bomber, arguing that it would help deter nuclear war and preserve America's global pre-eminence. "I think the long-range strike bomber is absolutely essential to keep our deterrent edge as we go into the next 25 years," Hagel told reporters after addressing a group of several hundred airmen at this B-2 stealth bomber base in western Missouri. Hagel later traveled to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, and also planned to visit Navy sailors aboard an aircraft carrier and Army soldiers in...

The U.S. Air Force is taking a serious look at overhauling the nearly 60 year-old B-52 bomber—including a new engine for the ancient plane. The question is not whether it makes sense, but why it hasn’t been done before. The answers include poor planning, budgetary procedures that defied economic logic, and at least one bone-headed accounting error. The B-52 first entered service in the mid-1950s. Putting new engines on the “Buff,” or Big Ugly Fat (cough) Fella, became a possibility after 1978, when the commercial airplane business launched two modern engines, the Rolls-Royce RB.211-535 and the PW2000. Unlike the first...

For decades, the Pentagon has been toying with the idea of upgrading the B-52 bomber, first built in the mid-1950s. Will they finally get around to it, this time? The U.S. Air Force is taking a serious look at overhauling the nearly 60 year-old B-52 bomber—including a new engine for the ancient plane. The question is not whether it makes sense, but why it hasn’t been done before. The answers include poor planning, budgetary procedures that defied economic logic, and at least one bone-headed accounting error. The B-52 first entered service in the mid-1950s. Putting new engines on the “Buff,”...

A newly-declassified report reveals that two nuclear bombs accidentally dropped in North Carolina were much closer to detonation than previously reported. On January 21, 1961 a B-52 bomber went into a tailspin, breaking apart mid-flight over Goldsboro, N.C. The plane was carrying two nuclear bombs, both of which were pushed into free-fall. The parachute for one of the bombs was safely deployed, but the other continued to plummet. It had been previously believed that, though nerve-racking, the incident was not nearly as dangerous as it sounded as neither bomb was armed. But documents released Thursday by the National Security Archive...

The Boeing B-52 - sometimes known as the Stratofortress - is a long-range, jet-powered strategic bomber which is widely expected to prop up the US Air Force well beyond the year 2045 Before our marathon eight-hour flight Captain Thomas Hyde, the commanding officer of one of the B-52 bombers, briefly describes the mission. He says we will be doing a number of simulated bombing runs around what he calls "the island". He makes it sound like a short training flight over a remote abandoned outcrop of rock somewhere in the North Sea. But the island he is referring to is...

As we reported few weeks ago, on Nov. 10, two B-52s, launched from Minot and Barksdale AFB for a training mission, flew hundreds of miles off course to give assistance to a Cessna plane that had lost radio contact with Anchorage Air Traffic Control Center in bad weather, over Alaska. While all the details about the successful rescue mission were released by the U.S. Air Force and can be found here, little was known about the mission the two Buffs were flying when they received the distress call. But, since then, we gathered some more information. The two B52s that...

<p>WASHINGTON—A pair of American B-52 bombers flew over a disputed island chain in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, U.S. officials said Tuesday, in a direct challenge to China and its establishment of an expanded air-defense zone.</p> <p>The planes flew out of Guam and entered the new Chinese Air Defense Identification Zone at about 7 p.m. Washington time Monday, according to a U.S. official.</p>