The 80 Year Old Bomber: B-52s Upgraded To Fly ANOTHER 30 Years

From the Air Force Times:

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.

The full story is here.