U.S. Air Force
Jared Keller, National Interest/Task & Purpose: The B-52's Devastating New Weapons Are Already Wreaking Havoc in the Middle East
The B-52 Stratofortress may be old enough to buy a senior ticket at the movies, but the legendary long-range strategic bomber is still pushing the envelope: On Dec. 12, Resolute Support commander Brig. Gen. Lance Bunch announced that a B-52 conducting bombing sorties out of Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, dropped the most precision munitions ever deployed from the airframe during a combat mission, an encouraging sign of what Air Force’s expensive modernization timeline holds for the tried-and-true airframe.
This particular B-52 has been flying combat missions as part of both Resolute Support and Operation Inherent Resolve since April 2016. But the new milestone comes thanks to a critical upgrade, the brand-new Conventional Rotary Launcher (CRL) — a munitions system designed around an expanded payload of GPS-guided ordnance and other “smart” bombs. According to Air Force personnel, the inclusion of new CRLs will boost the B-52’s weapons capacity by a whopping 67%.
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WNU Editor: It is hard to beleive that this bomber has been flying around since the 1950s.
