This 70 years old American bomber was so unreliable
and problematic that sometimes pieces of it would just fall off. It even dropped nuclear bombs on American
soil … accidentally! In case you haven’t figured it out yet,
you do need to wear a gas mask when 8 of this bombers engines are srarting up after using
explosive charges. But more importantly, when it comes to bombing
adverseries, if they have air defences, this bomber is obsolete, and has been for decades. But why the B-52 is expected to outlive much
newer B-1 and stealthier B-2 bombers is ... the super duper missile and a whole lot of “luck”. Seriously. We have a… I call it the super duper missile. You heard it right, a super duper missile,
that's what president Trump called it. The missile at hand is the AGM-183 hypersonic
missile that is currently in development. But as of yet it's not really that “super
duper”, quite the opposite actually. The missile failed to launch during its first
two tests, but on May 14th, 2022 it finally did. Third time’s a charm. But what is not a charm is B-52’s nickname! Commonly referred to as BUFF, which stands
for BIG UGLY FAT F*CKER, the B-52 Stratofortress was truly a “F*CKER” during its first
few decades of service. The list of things that went wrong with the
B-52 is as long as its age: engine malfunctions, hydraulics failures, ice build up, fuel leaks,
metal fatigue, and structural failure… just to name a few. At least two dozen bombers were lost due to
accidents outside of the combat zones, and even more were lost during combat. It kind of makes sense why BUFF is equipped
with multiple ejection seats. During its early years, BUFF was like today's
F-35, but probably worse, if you take into account the multiple nuclear accidents. But today, the Big Ugly Fat F*cker is more
of a Fellah, thanks to persistence of the US Air Force to make this airplane nearly
perfect. The idea of the B-52 was conceived right after
World War II, in 1945 and the contract to build it was signed the year after, with its
first flight taking place on April 15th, 1952. In total, 742 aircraft of eight different
versions were produced. During the 1950s and 60s, B-52 bombers were
the principial instrument of the United States Air Force to obliterate the Soviet Union with
nuclear bombs, if needed. “Operation Chrome Dome” was a Cold War
doomsday program that kept a dozen B-52 bombers in the air 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,
for 8 years! The bombers flew outside of the Soviet Union’s
borders to provide rapid first-strike or retaliation capability in case of a nuclear war. Chrome Dome started in 1960 and B-52s flew
multiple routes over Alaska, Greenland and Spain with the help of aerial refueling. But it was during this operation that B-52s
earned the second F in their nickname , when they crashed five times, but with nuclear
weapons onboard. On January 24th 1961, 12 miles north of Goldsboro,
North Carolina a B-52 broke up midair as it suffered catastrophic loss of fuel. As the crew ejected, two nuclear bombs fell
to the ground. In 2013 it was declassified, that one of the
nukes almost went off, because 3 out of 4 triggering mechanisms had activated during
the crash. On march 14th, 1961, another B-52 ran out
of fuel due to air crew failure to refuel in-time as they were tired from their 24-hour
long mission. As the crew ejected and survived, four nuclear
weapons crashed near Yuba City, California. The weapons’ safety mechanisms worked and
none of the bombs went off. The next accident happened on January 10th,
1964 near Barton, Maryland. It was discovered during a test that the stabilizer
on the B-52s could snap off mid flight. This particular B-52 landed back in one piece,
along with this remarkable footage, but only three days later the same thing happened to
another BUFF that was carrying two nuclear bombs. During a severe winter storm, the vertical
stabilizer broke off and the airplane crashed. The nuclear bombs were later found relatively
intact among the wreckage, with only 2 out of 5 crewmembers making it out alive. But the next two accidents happened outside
of the United States. On January 17th, 1966, a B-52 collided with
a KC-135 tanker during aerial refueling. As a result, three nuclear bombs fell down
near Palomares in Spain. One bomb fell into the sea, and was later
recovered. The conventional explosives of two nuclear
bombs that fell on land, exploded, causing a radioactive contamination of 500 acres with
radioactive plutonium. In the aftermath of the accident, the US government
had to stop its practice of flying nuclear-armed bombers over Spain and engage in a costly
cleanup of the accident site. In total, over 3 million pounds of radioactive
Spanish soil had to be dug up, placed in barrels, and shipped to the US. The final crash during Operation Chrome Dome
happened on January 21st, 1968, when a fire inside the cabin forced the -52’s crew to
eject near Thule Airbase in Greenland. The crash caused the conventional weapons
onboard to go off, dispersing theradioactive materials from four nuclear bombs. The following day, the US government ended
the 24/7 Operation Chrome Dome due to inherent risks, expensive clean ups and political scandals
that followed. As was evident during Operation Chrome Dome
and also dozens more major and minor accidents, the B-52s had a lot of problems. The US Air Force spent decades sorting out
all the issues by launching countless programs aimed at fixing BUFF The originally installed J57 engines proved
unreliable, which caused the first fatal crash in 1956. The entire fleet was grounded. Shortly after resuming service, fuel and hydraulics
issues grounded the fleet yet again. In the 1960s, it was discovered that when
B-52s flew at low altitude, structural fatigue was accelerated by a factor of 8. Thus a “High Stress” program was launched
to address this problem. When the Air Force decided to store fuel in
wings of B-52 models G and H, it resulted in 60% increase in stress, meaning the wings
had to be redone as part of the “ECP 1050” program. In 1966, longerons, avionics and fuselage
skin had to be replaced. All B-52s had to be reskinned again in 1977. An even bigger issue was ice build up in the
fuel system and numerous leaks in fuel tanks that caused multiple crashes. Worries about B-52 falling apart due to its
multiple technical issues was a very real threat. The Air Force worried about the B-52s falling
apart before they could even get a new bomber in place. But it wasn't just the plane, BUFF was so
heavy that ramps and taxiways deteriorated much faster than expected. By the time most of the technical issues related
to the B-52 fleet were resolved, the advances in Soviet Union’s air defenses, especially
surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs and interceptors had made BUFF obsolete. They could no longer fly directly into Soviet
Union’s territory and drop gravity nuclear bombs. But this turned out to be very “lucky”
for BUFF. Even though XB-70 and B-1A were much faster
and more capable bombers, they too were now voulnerble to Soviet air defences. There was no point in pouring money into these
programs anymore. So Valkyrie and B-1A were canceled, and B-52s
kept flying! The Pentagon instead poured money into Intercontinental
Ballistic Missiles, Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles and cruise missiles with nuclear
warheads such as AGM-86 which could be launched far away from Soviet airspace. The second “lucky” development for the
B-52 was the Vietnam war, during which, they were converted into giant flying dump trucks,
raining conventional bombs on enemy positions. Specifically, BUFF underwent modification
“Big Belly”, which increased its capacity of 500-pound bombs from 27 to 84. The internal weapons bay allows for better
fuel efficiency, because a full load of bombs under the wings wil increase fuel consumption
by 30%. BUFF is capable of carrying up to 70,000 pounds
of weapons and has a typical range of 8,800 miles without the need for aerial refueling. Its top speed is 650 mph and a maximum altitude
of 50,000 feet , although it never flies that high with its belly fully loaded. By 1966, B-52s were dropping 8000 tons of
bombs in South vietnam every month. It was in Vietnam where B-52s earned a reputation
of being a dreaded bearer of death and destruction. But it wasn’t all smooth for BUFF. During the Vietnam war, Americans officially
lost 15 of them, although Vietnamese claim they shot down at least 34. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in
the 90s and 2000’s, BUFF was equipped with precision-guided munitions that could be fired
from outside of the enemy's anti-air defense systems. Alternatively, once the enemys air-defenses
had been neutralized, BUFF could perform a bombing run, as it happened during the Gulf
War. In fact, one of the reasons for keeping B-52s
around was using them in low intensity conflicts where the enemy doesn’t possess modern air
defenses. Going back to the early 80s, things were not
looking so good for the future of B-52s. The Advanced Technology Program, the very
program that resulted in the B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber, was secretly going full steam. Designed to penetrate dense air defenses due
to its low radar cross-section, B-2 was America’s ticket to fly into Soviet territory again. “Goodbye BUFF”, you would think! But it would be almost two decades before
the B-2 would enter service. This meant that B-52s were to remain in service
and provide nuclear deterrence using the new AGM-86 cruise missiles that had just entered
service. War games suggested that BUFFs equipped with
nuclear cruise missiles would be a credible threat to the Soviets until 1985. But there was a problem. In the early 80s, it was estimated that if
the B-52 fleet were to launch a cruise missile attack, only 75% of them would survive the
Soviet defenses, and that survivability percentage kept decreasing as the Soviet technological
advancements continued. So President Reagan resurrected the B-1 Program
as a Long Range Combat Aircraft project. In essence, the B-1 Lancer became a stop-gap
bomber between the vulnerable B-52s and the future B-2 stealth bombers. While 100 new B-1 bombers were being built
between 1983 and 1988, Soviets introduced new technologies: the SA-10 missile, the MIG-31
interceptor and an Airborne Early Warning aircraft. By the time the last B-1 rolled out of production,
the US Airforce concluded that the B-1s were as vulnerable to the Soviet Air Defenses as
the B-52s. And yet, another lucky development happened
that kept BUFF alive. As a result of collapse of Soviet Union and
the end of the Cold War, the Pentagon reduced the number of procured stealth B-2 bombers
from 132 … to just 21. This meant that there were not going to be
enough B-1s and B-2s around to replace the B-52 capabilities. Moreover, as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty with Russia, the B-1’s would no longer carry nuclear weapons. That left the nuclear role just for B-2s and
B-52s. Great news for BUFF … except that as part
of that same treaty, 375 B-52s had to be destroyed as well. Many BUFFs were cut into 5 pieces using a
13,000 pound steel blade dropped from a crane. By the time everything was signed and done,
the United States was left with just under 100 B-52s. While ICBMs and SLBMs are primary systems
for delivering nuclear weapons, BUFF is still retained for nuclear missions. Because it can be quickly launched in a crisis,
and quickly called back mid flight if senior officials conclude that a presumed nuclear
threat has been falsely identified. This is something that missiles cannot do. At least not yet. Roughly 40 B-52H bombers are currently assigned
a “deterrence role” as part of the nuclear triad. 70 years later, BUFFs are still kicking around. Even after a rocky start they proved to be
reliable.. Now, they just work, all problems have been
fixed, maintenance has been worked out, so it makes sense to keep them around. In recent years, BUFF’s availability has
been over 60% compared to B-1s and B-2s. B-52 costs about $70,000 per hour to fly,
roughly half of B-2, but a bit more expensive than B-1. Being a missile truck that launches missiles
from far away, means speed and stealth is of lesser importance. New missiles that are currently in development
can strike from thousands of miles away. This will transition B-52s to an exclusively
over-the-horizon stand-off missile launching role with the help of AGM-183A ARRW hypersonic
missiles and Long Range Stand-Off nuclear armed air-launched cruise missiles. LRSO missiles can hit targets in excess of
1,500 miles away. The US Air Force plans to procure at least
1,000 nuclear armed missiles. The Super Duper Missile, AGM-183A, will employ
a rocket booster that will launch it into the upper atmosphere at five times the speed
of sound. Then the unpowered glide vehicle will accelerate
up to Mach 20 as it falls to the ground and strikes high value targets using its kinetic
energy. BUFF “has good bones”. B-52H, the last variant produced, spent most
of its service life on the ground, alert for nuclear operations, and so its airframe has
many thousands of hours of service life left. But not its engines. The Pentagon is replacing 608 engines on 76
BUFFs as well as purchasing 42 as spares, at a total cost of $2.6 billion dollars. The Rolls Royce F130 engines will replace
the old Pratt &Whitney TF33 engines that are approaching end of life. The Air Force is looking at 25 to 30% better
fuel efficiency and as much as a 40% increase in range with these new engines! The new F130 engines can operate for 30,000
hours or more, meaning that an engine installed in the late 2020s, might still be running
into the 2090s. The youngest B-52 currently in service rolled
off the production line in 1962. But it wouldn’t be fair to call it a 60-year
old plane. In many ways, BUFF is younger than airplanes
made in the 1980s and 90s. Every four years, BUFFs spend a few months
at the Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, where the aircraft's panels are removed, everything
is inspected, and repaired as needed. They also get re-winged, re-skinned, and re-tailed
every now and then, thanks to the abundance of spare parts in the Boneyard! BUFFs get new upgrades too. Be it new wiring, radios, sensors, and even
a new radar. Internal Weapons Bay Upgrade completed in
2017 featured a 66% increase in weapons payload as a result of using digital interface and
rotary launchers. An upgraded communication system, called CONECT,
allows the crew to collect real time intelligence data for situational awareness, and even re-target
an in-flight missile. So BUFF becomes a bomber plus an airborne
command and control airplane. In 2018, the US Air Force announced that 62
B-1s and 20 B-2 stealth bombers will be retired by the 2030s, while retaining B-52s along
with at least 100 new B-21 Raiders. BUFF is currently expected to stay in service
well into the 2050s.
