Part of the Nuclear Triad, the B-52s have been integral in preserving peace around the world.
Since then, the aircraft have been updated to include the ability to launch cruise missiles.
The CALFEX was a perennial crowd-pleaser.
A Boeing B-52H Stratofortress of the 2nd Bomb Wing static display with weapons, at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Image: Tech. Sgt. Robert J. Horstman/U.S.A.F.
CALFEX is milspeak for Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise.
Think of it like a rodeo, except with helicopter gunships and rocket artillery.
At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, pre-9/11 the world was a much simpler place.
Shown is the prototype XB-52 bomber on a flight line. A Northrop X-4 Bantam is in the foreground and aConvair B-36 Peacemaker bomberis in the background. Image: U.S.A.F.
Fort Sill is the home of the Field Artillery the King of Battle.
The sheer volume of destruction housed in the place is honestly kind of tough to imagine.
Every six months we got to exercise that chaos.
Left side view of a B-52 Stratofortress aircraft in-flight during Exercise Team Spirit ’82 in South Korea. Image: NARA
I was an Army aviator.
I flew the CALFEX in both OH-58A and CH-47D aircraft.
However, during one iteration my family came to visit as the event was open to the public.
Boeing B-52 and Consolidated B-36 bombers in flight near Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Image: NARA
I put someone else on the schedule to fly and queued up alongside the civilians.
There was legit no better community goodwill outreach than this.
For that brief afternoon, normal Americans got to see what they got for their taxes.
Despite being in the Air Force inventory for more than 50 years, B-52s continue to provide precision-guided weapons capabilities to Operation Inherent Resolve. Image: Staff Sgt. Michael Battles/U.S.A.F.
It was an epic show.
The infantrys M16s, M60s, and anti-tank guided missiles all synergistically crackled like Satans popcorn.
There were usually some attack jets like AV-8B Harriers or A-10s thrown in for flavor.
Two U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortresses assigned to the 96th Bomb Squadron fly in formation over the Baltic Sea in October of 2019. Image: Airman 1st Class Duncan C. Bevan/U.S.A.F.
Each weapon system got to strut its stuff, throwing live rounds downrange with an announcer coordinating everything.
Once all those weapons were exercised, we were tired.
The noise and shock effect dulled our senses.
View from inside the cockpit of a B-52 Stratofortress bomber. Shown are pilot and co-pilot. Image: Staff Sgt. Scott Stewart/U.S.A.F.
We were a long ways from where everything was going off, yet we still felt the thumps.
I recall being very impressed with the volume of sheer unfiltered destruction.
And then the announcer directed our attention to a speck in the distance.
A flight crew runs to a B-52 Stratofortress aircraft during an alert at Grand Forks Air Force Base in 1981. Image: Master Sgt. Bob Wickley/NARA
The B-52 Stratofortress was flying surprisingly low level.
As a helicopter guy, I was impressed.
Once he got aligned, the bomb bay doors opened and little black specks began streaming out.
A U.S. Air Force B-52 aircraft lands in Thailand after a mission over South Vietnam in October of 1972. Image: NARA
Each tiny black speck was an Mk 82 500-lb.
general-purpose bomb, and it looked like that plane was carrying a thousand of them.
They seemed to go on for days.
Strategic Air Command B-52 bombers being prepared prior to their participation in Operation Linebacker II over North Vietnam. Image: NARA
And then every other Mk 82 followed in sequence.
Despite being several thousand meters from the impact zone, the shock waves took our breath away.
I had never imagined such power existed on planet Earth.
A B-52 Stratofortress takes off at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam in support of a Bomber Task Force mission, April 20, 2023. Image: Airman 1st Class William Pugh/U.S.A.F.
That was my shocking introduction to the BUFF.
Use your imagination and think like a soldier.
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress first flew on the 15thof April, 1952.
Airman 1st Class William C. Haase, armed with an M16 rifle, guards B-52 Stratofortress aircraft on the flight line during Exercise GLOBAL SHIELD ’84. Image: Tech Sgt. Boyd Belcher/NARA
The B-52 is a brute-force instrument.
Configured for combat, the BUFF can carry some 70,000 lbs.
worth of weapons with an unrefueled range of 8,800 miles.
B-52H Stratofortress Weapons Systems Officer Emily “Jäger” Bomersbach simulates close air support procedures with Estonian allies. Image: Senior Airman Michael A. Richmond/U.S.A.F.
A total of 744 airframes were built.
Of those, 72 remain operational today.
The B-58 Hustler, theXB-70 Valkyrieand theB-1 Lancerall came and went, yet the BUFF soldiered on.
Air-to-air left side view of a B-52 Stratofortress bomber during BULLRIDER ’88. Image: Tech. Sgt. Joseph G. Fallon/NARA
By the time the design is finally retired, it will have served operationally for nearly a century.
No other military aircraft on the planet even comes close.
The B-52 sports eight Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-3/103 turbofan engines.
Each jet engine produces 17,000 lbs.
The plane was used to deliver precision-guided weapons in enormous quantities throughout the Global War on Terror.
However, the real battlefield for the B-52 was North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
During the Vietnam War, massed B-52 raids laid waste to terrain grid squares at a time.
This was the machine that so awed me that day at Fort Sill.
The B-52 was capable of targeting by a variety of onboard means.
However, oftentimes the Arc Light raids were controlled from ground radar stations in Laos.
My father-in-law was a radar officer in the Air Force and explained the details to me.
Using this technology, the BUFFs could conduct bombing operations in literally any weather day or night.
I literally cannot imagine how horrible that might be on the receiving end.
Early B-52 D-models carried a quad mount .50-caliber radar-guided defensive system in the tail.
B-52 tail gunners accounted for three North Vietnamese MiG-21 fighters downed during the course of the war.
A total of 31 B-52s were lost due to combat action in Vietnam.
Later models carried an M-61 Vulcan in the tail mount.
Current variants have deleted their tail guns.
A B-52 launched the X-15 rocket planes on their record-setting speed runs.
This operation set a record for the longest combat mission in aviation history.
The planes five-man crews stayed aloft for some 35 hours.
Using precision-guided standoff missiles, the BUFFs successfully neutralized 90% of their assigned targets.
At the time, the B-52 cost $72,000 per flight hour to operate.
The B-52 Stratofortress is one of the greatest success stories of the American military.
Many combat planes are faster, and stealth does seem to be more than a passing fad.
However, 108 Mk 82 500-lb.
bombs all at one time certainly will get someones attention.
The BUFF is an undeniably bad machine.
