Aging B-52 bomber gets new Sniper pod upgrade

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Aging B-52 bomber gets new Sniper pod upgrade

By David Szondy
March 25, 2013



Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (Image: USAF)
Image Gallery (6 images)




Last week, the United States Air Force’s 2nd Bomb Wing made its first live run with a new Lockheed Martin Sniper pod installed on the wing of a B-52H Stratofortress. Taking off from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, the practice run introduces new combat abilities that will give the aging bomber better integration with ground forces and laser-guided bombs for precision strikes.

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The sniper pod has already seen service with a number of fighter and bomber aircraft in both the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and allied forces. It has high resolution FLIR thermal imagers and HDTV, a dual mode laser designator, a laser spot tracker and a laser marker with the capability of sharing real time images and data with ground forces.

"With the pod we can integrate with the guys on the ground and let them see what we see. This way we are on the same page," said Capt. Ryan Allen, 20th Bomb Squadron radar navigation instructor. "It also gives us a greater visibility range over that of the previous one."




The pod is designed to recognize the aircraft to which it is being fitted,
with the software configuring itself automatically, so installation is usually relatively simple. Though it did illustrate how the strategic bomber requires constant, system-wide upgrades to remain in service. "The way the pod can interact with our avionics system is state of the art," said Allen. "Most of the (bomber’s) systems had to be radically improved to give us total interaction between the new and old."

According to the Air Force, the new pods provide the aging airframe with a boost in capabilities. "This flight was the first time that the 2nd BW has used the sniper pod with live ordnance like the [Laser guided bomb]," said Allen. "This pod gives a faster response time to our targets. What would normally take me 30 to 40 button presses in five minutes now only takes me a few seconds to actually target and drop munitions."

Source: USAF

http://www.gizmag.com/b-52-sniper-pod/26802/

[Boats]

If you've never seen one of these babies - you would be shocked. They are huge and sleek and a marvel to see up and close - If you get an opportunity to see one don't miss it.

B-52 Bombers To Remain In Service For Foreseeable Future

The B-52 strategic bomber.
by Staff Writers
Zhukovsky, Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 22, 2007
The U.S. Air Force (USAF) will continue flying the B-52 strategic bomber into the foreseeable future, despite their having been in service for more than five decades, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range strategic bomber flown by the USAF since 1955. A total of 744 B-52s have been produced, but only about 100 B-52H bombers remain in service.
General William Hobbins, Commander, U.S. Air Forces Europe, said Tuesday the B-52 had proven its reliability and could remain in service for a long time because the development of a new strategic bomber would be too costly.

Hobbins is leading a U.S Air Force delegation at the MAKS-2007 air show near Moscow, where the United States is showcasing several aircraft, including the B-52 bomber, the KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling tanker aircraft, the C-5 Galaxy strategic transport plane and F-15 Eagle and F-15 Falcon fighters.

The B-52 strategic bomber has the longest range without aerial refueling of any bomber (about 4,500 miles), and carries up to 60,000 pounds of ordnance, including nuclear bombs and nuclear-tipped missiles.

B-52s are stationed at two USAF bases - the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana and the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.
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Mention the "B-52" to most people and they'll think of either an '80s pop group, a bad hair style, or an ancient bomber that's a relic of the Cold War. The name conjures up a vintage warplane featured in grainy footage from the Cuban Missile Crisis, but what may surprise people is to learn that in the second decade of the 21st century, the B-52 fleet still plays a key role in America's nuclear deterrence and conventional warfare strategy. Now the US Defense Department is upgrading the venerable USAF B-52 heavy bomber to allow the sixty-year old aircraft to continue in active front-line service until the 2040s.

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The Air Force’s newest B-52 turns 50
The Air Force’s newest B-52 turns 50
By Philip Ewing | Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 12:29 pm
Posted in Air
1272445
The Air Force’s youngest B-52 Stratofortress will turn 50 years old this October.

It’s the subject of a terrific writeup by Tech Sgt. Chris Powell, packed with great detail about the bomber, and also telling in what it doesn’t say: The Air Force’s forthcoming new bomber has enormous shoes to fill.

Wrote Powell:


“I don’t think anyone really knew this was going to be the last B-52 ever made,” said Robert Michel, the 5th Bomb Wing historian. “They expected it to be in service for probably about 20 years, (not close to) a hundred.”

With Tail No. 1040 and the rest of the Air Force’s B-52s scheduled to keep flying through 2040, there are several reasons why the B-52 has been flying for more than 50 years.

“I don’t think you can get a bomber that could replace the B-52 that will do everything the B-52 does,” Michel said.

That’s because the B-52 can perform nuclear deterrence and conventional operations, fly at both high and low altitudes while carrying nuclear and conventional bombs, cruise missiles or aerial mines, he said. “It’s like the Swiss Army bomber.”

To keep a fleet of aircraft flying for so long, it takes constant attention from maintainers to ensure the planes are every bit as airworthy as the rest of Air Force’s fleet.

“The aircraft has seen some really good maintainers through its years,” said Staff Sgt. Eric Thomas, a dedicated crew chief assigned to the 5th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. “I think it’s a compliment to the maintainers and the people who support the airframe because there aren’t many aircraft that are flying 50 years after it left the factory. It’s definitely not the prettiest plane out there, but it can take a beating and keep on kicking.”

However, even with highly trained maintainers, keeping the B-52 flying day in and day out is no easy task. Thomas said 1040 requires less maintenance than the rest of the B-52s at Minot AFB, which is surprising, considering it’s also the most active aircraft at the base. On average, the rest of Minot AFB’s B-52s have between 17,000 to 18,000 flying hours, while 1040 has more than 21,000, Thomas said.

Tail 1040 was the last of 744 bombers, Powell writes; they’d been in production since 1952. (Boeing delivered 100 BUFFs in Fiscal 1958 alone.) This armada of B-52s constituted the mailed fist grasping the lightning bolts on the Strategic Air Command emblem, though mercifully, the bombers’ combat career has involved delivering only conventional ordnance.

Comparisons are odious, but if you set the run of airplanes that ended with 1040 against the Air Force’s proposed new bomber, the difference could not be starker. Still, the Air Force hopes it can repeat history; here’s what service officials said in their budget submission this year: “By relying on proven technologies and by planning to evolve the aircraft over time as threats evolve, similar to the B-52 legacy fleet, the up-front acquisition costs will be reduced significantly from the B-2 experience. The average procurement unit cost is anticipated to be about $550 million in FY 2010 dollars for a fleet of 80–100 aircraft.”

That may not include the off-board systems the Air Force also wants to constitute “Long-Range Strike,” and the particulars of the new bomber itself are not for you to know, silly taxpayer — just keep signing those checks. So we can’t say yet where exactly the new airplane will fall on the spectrum from B-52 to to B-1 to B-2 in terms of actual cost, ease of manufacture, performance and so on. We can say that the Air Force needs to develop and buy it around the same time it’s going into full production of the F-35 Lightning II and the KC-46A tanker, so that could present another challenge the B-52 didn’t have back in its day.

There’s another big unanswered question about the future of the Air Force’s bomber fleet: Even though commanders think they can upgrade and maintain the B-52s so they fly until 2040, does that mean staying at today’s operational tempo, or spiraling down to account for their ever-increasing age and wear? If the fleet were called upon to log some major hours in an unexpected campaign or crisis, that could pull its sunset date much closer forward in time, or require still more investment to keep the airplanes around.

Then again, Tail no. 1040 has already served for so long — longer than most Navy warships, let alone aircraft — that it and its siblings might be able to just stay in the fleet forever.

[Boats]

Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-52_Stratofortress
Updated: 2015-10-14T03:19Z
"B-52" redirects here. For other uses, see B52 (disambiguation).
"BUFF" redirects here. For other uses, see Buff.
B-52 Stratofortress
Aerial top/side view of gray B-52H flying over barren desert land.
A B-52H from Barksdale AFB flying over the desert
Role Strategic bomber
National origin United States
Manufacturer Boeing
First flight 15 April 1952
Introduction February 1955
Status In service
Primary users United States Air Force
NASA
Produced 1952–62
Number built 744[1]
Unit cost
B-52B: US$14.43 million[2]
B-52H: US$9.28 million (1962)
B-52H: US$53.4 million (1998)[3]
Developed into Conroy Virtus
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) since the 1950s. The bomber is capable of carrying up to 70,000 pounds (32,000 kg) of weapons.[4]
Beginning with the successful contract bid in June 1946, the B-52 design evolved from a straight wing aircraft powered by six turboprop engines to the final prototype YB-52 with eight turbojet engines and swept wings. The B-52 took its maiden flight in April 1952. Built to carry nuclear weapons for Cold War-era deterrence missions, the B-52 Stratofortress replaced the Convair B-36. A veteran of several wars, the B-52 has dropped only conventional munitions in combat. The B-52's official name Stratofortress is rarely used; informally, the aircraft has become commonly referred to as the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fucker).[5][Note 1]
The B-52 has been in active service with the USAF since 1955. As of 2012, 85 were in active service with nine in reserve. The bombers flew under the Strategic Air Command (SAC) until it was inactivated in 1992 and its aircraft absorbed into the Air Combat Command (ACC); in 2010 all B-52 Stratofortresses were transferred from the ACC to the new Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). Superior performance at high subsonic speeds and relatively low operating costs have kept the B-52 in service despite the advent of later, more advanced aircraft, including the canceled Mach 3 B-70 Valkyrie, the variable-geometry B-1 Lancer, and the stealth B-2 Spirit. The B-52 completed fifty years of continuous service with its original operator in 2005; after being upgraded between 2013 and 2015, it is expected to serve into the 2040s.