Mission Heavy bombers with a large range and versatility is the B-52H Stratofortress. The bomber can reach heights of up to 50,000 feet (15,166.6 meters) and fly at high subsonic speeds. It has the capacity to navigate precisely anywhere in the planet and can carry both conventional and nuclear weapons that are directed.

Features The B-52 is capable of conducting close-air support, air interdiction, offensive counter-air, strategic strike, and maritime missions during a conventional war.

B-52s dropped forty percent of the coalition troops’ weaponry during Desert Storm. When employed for ocean surveillance, it is quite successful, and it may help the U.S. Navy with minelaying and anti-ship missions. Two B-52s can cover 140,000 square miles, or 364,000 square kilometers, of ocean area in two hours.

The B-52’s combat capability may be further enhanced by adding two electro-optical vision sensors, a forward-looking infrared, and sophisticated targeting pods to enhance aiming, battle evaluation, and flight safety.

To improve their visibility during night operations, pilots put on night vision goggles, or NVGs. By boosting the pilot’s ability to visually clear terrain, raise the aircrew’s situational awareness in both peacetime and warfare, and enhance their visual acquisition of other aircraft, night vision goggles increase safety during night operations.

B-52s had sophisticated targeting pods installed. Targeting pods are used for all operations, including close air support of ground forces, to increase long-range target detection, identification, and continual stabilized monitoring. The B-52’s combat effectiveness is greatly enhanced by its sophisticated targeting and image processing technology, which allows it to attack ground targets with a range of standoff weapons (such as laser-guided bombs, conventional bombs, and GPS-guided weapons) in all weather conditions, day or night.

With airborne refueling, the B-52’s range is only constrained by the endurance of its crew. Its combat range, when unrefueled, exceeds 8,800 miles (14,080 kilometers).

Context The cornerstone of the American strategic bomber force for almost 60 years has been B-52s. The most diverse range of weaponry in the U.S. arsenal can be dropped or launched by the B-52. This covers combined direct attack weapons, precision guided missiles, cluster bombs, and gravity bombs. Modernized with state-of-the-art technology, the B-52 can deliver the whole suite of joint developed weaponry and will remain a vital component of our country’s defenses well into the twenty-first century. As of right now, the Air Force plans to continue using B-52s until 2050.

The B model went into service in 1955, while the B-52A had its first flight in 1954. 744 B-52s were constructed in all; the last one, a B-52H, was delivered in October 1962. Strategic Air Command received the first of 102 B-52H aircraft in May 1961. Up to 20 air-launched cruise missiles can be carried by the H variant. It can also carry conventional cruise missiles, which were used in a number of emergency launches, including Operation Desert Storm in the 1990s and Operation Inherent Resolve in 2016.

Both during Operation Allied Force and Operation Desert Storm, the aircraft’s adaptability was demonstrated. B-52s destroyed the Republican Guard’s morale in Iraq by hitting bunkers, permanent installations, and large-scale troop concentrations. As part of Operation Desert Strike, two B-52Hs attacked communications and power plants in Baghdad on September 2-3, 1996, with 13 AGM-86C Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missiles, or CALCMs. This was the longest combat mission flight at the time, a 34-hour flight covering 16,000 statute miles from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

The B-52’s capacity to hover high above the battlefield and deliver close air support via the deployment of precision guided weapons in 2001 helped make Operation Enduring Freedom a success. During a night mission on March 21, 2003, the B-52 launched about 100 CALCMs as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

For the first time in ten years, the B-52 entered the Central Command sphere of influence in 2016. Approximately 1,800 combat missions against ISIS forces were conducted by B-52s in Syria and Iraq, which helped to slow the group’s growth in the area.

Air Force Global Strike Command’s 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, North Dakota, and the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, are the only units left in the Air Force inventory—the H model. Additionally, the aircraft is assigned to Barksdale AFB’s 307th Bomb Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command.