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The Air Force’s venerable half-century-old Boeing B-52 bomber is getting its biggest makeover yet. A host of ongoing and planned upgrades will keep the 76 jets flying for three more decades, service officials said. “The B-52, as a bomber, still has a nuclear mission in combination with the Air Launched Cruise Missile,” said Maj. Gen. William Chambers, the Air Staff strategic deterrence and nuclear integration officer. “The continued upgrade of the B-52’s electronics and the effort we have underway for a new cruise missile are both examples of where we’re taking very old systems and making them last longer.” The planned upgrades total three: • The CONECT program will put a digital backbone and communications suite into the largely analog aircraft. • A new 1760 databus architecture will allow the old bird to drop modern smart weapons from its internal weapon bays. • Strategic radar will replace the B-52’s antiquated 1960s-vintage system. In the past decade, the B-52 was fitted with the LITENING targeting pod, which allows the crew members to designate their own targets and send video to ground stations. The various upgrades increase capability and make it easier — and, in some cases, cheaper — to maintain an aircraft with various subsystems and parts that went out of production long ago. “The airframe itself is very solid, very reliable,” with enough life left in it to fly into the 2040s, said Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command. The Air Force has a plentiful supply of engines, he said. |
Air Force Times - B52 Upgraded
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