the u.s air force b-52 stratofortress bombers have been front and center during the ongoing
northern edge exercise in alaska first testing target data for an experimental hypersonic missile
and then working with fighter jets on may 5th a b-52 flew a 13-hour round-trip sorting to alaska
from birksdale air force base la to test data transmission and target sensing for the agm-183
air-launched rapid response weapon a hypersonic missile being developed by lockheed martin for
the air force the service said in a news release thursday a prototype of the hypersonic missile
traveled up to eight times the speed of sound with a range of a thousand miles according to a report
last month made by the congressional research service for last week's test during which no
projectiles were actually fired the b-52 received data from a command and control team gathered at
joint base elimdorf richardson the team part of the exercise's all-domain operation capability
experiment is synchronizing joint functions in forward locations during the two weeks of
training that ends friday the air force said in this experiment sensors operated by the command
and control team sent target data to the b-52s which was more than a thousand miles away the
bomber then made a successful simulated hit of the target from 600 nautical miles away using a
hypersonic missile the bomber crew confirmed the hit to other aircraft in the air which
the so-called kill chain for a successful missile strike this was a test of the data link that makes
hypersonic weapon targeting possible said first lieutenant savannah bray an air force spokeswoman
quote as supersonic missile testing continues to go through the steps that it takes to eventually
feel this weapon this is a major milestone in the data forming process end quote the experiment was
one step in developing tactics that would be used by for example a pilot in the bomber's cockpit to
accurately fire the weapon once it becomes operational frey said meanwhile on friday
a b-52 flew from anderson air force base guam to the vast joint pacific alaska range complex
where it joined up with u.s fighter jets during a northern edge bomber task force mission the
objective was to establish tactics and procedures in working with navy and marine corps personnel
the air force said in a news release monday quote we have to get reps as a team lieutenant colonel
jared pierre commander of the 20th bomb squadron and the bomber task force said in the news release
it's like basketball sure i could practice free throws by myself but there's nothing like running
drills with the rest of the team he said that is what we're doing with northern edge the long-range
p-52s can carry both nuclear and conventional bombs and can fly more than 8 800 miles without
refueling b-52 engine replacement could keep flying through its 100th birthday it was 75 years
ago this june that the us army air forces first awarded bowie a modest 1.7 million dollar contract
to begin work on a new strategic bomber later this year the 76 remaining b-52 straddle fortresses
will start to get new engines that just might keep the vulnerable bomber flying through its hundredth
birthday the biggest modernization program in its history will replace the eighth pratt and whitney
tf-33 engines that have powered each jet since the 1960s said air force b-52 senior material leader
colonel louis rachetta by the time the replacement is complete the stratofortress will have outlasted
both of its current contemporaries the b-1 lancer conventional bomber and the b-2 stealth bomber
the new engines are intended to enable the b-52 to serve alongside the future b-21 braider as
the airborne leg of the nuclear triad into the 2050s when we built the b-52 it was supposed to
be a high-altitude nuclear bomber right going to the adversary said major general andrew jafara
director of strategic plans programs and requirements at air force global strike command
then it became a low altitude nuclear bomber then it became a high altitude carpet bomber in vietnam
and then it became a standoff cruise missile shooter in desert storm then it became a
precision strike close air support platform in afghanistan and iraq and now we're going to make
it the first hypersonic shooter in the american inventory jabara said referring to the integration
testing underway to fit the b-52 with the agm-183a air-launched rapid response weapon i don't think
the original plan was to go 75 years said jennifer wong boeing senior director for bomber programs
but the way the aircraft was designed it was designed with a lot of structural margin
wang and jibara said the b-52's design erred on the side of caution in calculating the
stresses the aircraft would face in its original high-altitude mission that precaution has made it
cheaper to hang new weapons on an old frame than to design a new aircraft the bomber has shown
signs of structural strength and has been updated with modern parts over its years several changes
were made after a b-52 carrying two hydrogen bombs broke apart over goldsboro north carolina in 1961.
as the plane spun to the ground one of the bombs activated but did not detonate
after that incident which killed three crew members sections of the outer skin on the plane's
wings spine and tail were replaced with a tougher aluminum alloy some structural changes were made
to the bomber's internal frame but the bones of it are still a 60 year old airplane javara said
each of the remaining 76 bombers was built between 1961 and 1962. the engine overhaul won't change
that the 11.1 billion serp or commercial engine replacement program is expected to replace only
about 10 percent of the bombers overall components the new engines won't increase the bomber speed
even the existing engines could fly faster but don't to reduce stress on the airframe rachetta
expects that the new engines could increase the bomber's fuel efficiency by as much as 30 percent
which could ease demand for the aerial aerial refueling tanker fleet other modifications to
the bomber that are already underway include replacing the b-52's original am apq 166
radars with active electronically scanned array aesa radars new nuclear command and control radios
and fitting the b-52 with new long-range standoff weapons those swaps had the air force considering
further reducing the size of the crew jabara said we think the large number of upgrades we're doing
on b-52 to the radar and the mission we expected to do we're going to come off of five down to four
we'd like to combine the navigator position and the electronic warfare officer position
but the bomber can hold up to a crew of 10 which has had the air force thinking of
other possibilities too jabarra said normally in combat we would only fly five when we get to four
i could see a world in which we could you know if i fly three b-52s on a bomber task force mission
i could put six maintainers in every one of those extra seats and we could self-deploy
in some limited circumstances so it's exciting thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe
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