“American B-52 bombers land at a RAF base in the largest US bomber deployment to the UK since the Iraq war.
……
Their arrival on Thursday and Friday came ahead of a NATO exercise in Georgia, which will be a show of force against Vladimir Putin's neighbouring Russia - though it is unclear if the B-52s will be involved…”

https://mol.im/a/6818771

Cool to have them flying around the Baltics and skirting Ruski airspace, again

I know when a lot of people look at those pics, they think of the B-52, I think about those kids at home, the wives, maybe a husband or two, the birthday parties missed, the soccer games missed, the life missed. It is not all glorious.

The hammer of god.

BUFF = Big Ugly Fat Fellow.

Known affectionately as the BUFF when I was in the AF. Today, she is quite beautiful in her old age

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:
I know when a lot of people look at those pics, they think of the B-52, I think about those kids at home, the wives, maybe a husband or two, the birthday parties missed, the soccer games missed, the life missed. It is not all glorious.

There’s no more draft. They volunteered, they’re well paid, and no one is shooting at them.

quote:

Originally posted by PD:

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:
I know when a lot of people look at those pics, they think of the B-52, I think about those kids at home, the wives, maybe a husband or two, the birthday parties missed, the soccer games missed, the life missed. It is not all glorious.

There’s no more draft. They volunteered, they’re well paid, and no one is shooting at them.

Yeah, it could be ALOT worse.

2-4 weeks in the UK/EU, flying missions, seeing the sights on days off... more like a well paid vacation IMO.

The whine of those engines is a noise you'll never forget.

And the starter cartridges going off and the landing lights through the smoke.
And wondering if this was the last time you would see them.

When I was a younger person I used to see them arriving and taking off at RAF Manston and over at Fairford and Greenham Common. Wondrously noisy and earthshaking experiences in either direction, and now, over fifty years later, those same airframes are a more than welcome sight in British skies.

Some of the aircrew are flying B-52s that their fathers had flown before them - real history in the air!

Not unexpectedly, a lot of the comments are very anti-US and otherwise stupid.

What is truly amazing to me is that is it is still a formidable aircraft all these years later. I'm surprised the air frames are even serviceable. Lots of upgrades over time but still a great aircraft for hauling and dropping a shit ton of weapons on somebody.

As long as there are no enemy fighters around, and enemy air defenses have been completely suppressed.

quote:

Originally posted by cruiser68:
What is truly amazing to me is that is it is still a formidable aircraft all these years later. I'm surprised the air frames are even serviceable. Lots of upgrades over time but still a great aircraft for hauling and dropping a shit ton of weapons on somebody.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
As long as there are no enemy fighters around, and enemy air defenses have been completely suppressed.

quote:

Originally posted by cruiser68:
What is truly amazing to me is that is it is still a formidable aircraft all these years later. I'm surprised the air frames are even serviceable. Lots of upgrades over time but still a great aircraft for hauling and dropping a shit ton of weapons on somebody.

True that. Without fighter escort and some good electronic countermeasures she is basically a huge slow moving target.

Wonder what the radar cross section is compared to a B2?

An impressive aircraft in the air or on the ground. Their longevity and usefulness have been a real benefit to the US and to countries around the world.

One observation is that I thought B-52s still had some kind of point defense weapons, at least from the rear and/or side of the aircraft, but evidently not. All things considered and given current air to air missile technology I guess they are a moot point and would not be very effective or serve a real purpose. Even so, I could imagine an enemy fighter pilot wanting the "satisfaction" of shooting down a B-52 with guns or a close range missile shot as opposed to a beyond visual range missile shot but then again maybe not. Ironically enough, those forward facing triangular openings look a lot like gun ports but they can't possibly be forward firing guns on an aircraft of this size.

On another note, the B-52 in the photos are proof that even aircraft get wrinkles with age.

They removed the quad-50s from B-52s in 1991 as a cost saving measure.

Against a modern fighter, the only real protection is avoidance in combination with other friendly fighters keeping enemy away.

Even with the quad-50s (if they had kept them), they would have pretty much no offensive protection capability.

Amazing aircraft nonetheless.

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:
I know when a lot of people look at those pics, they think of the B-52, I think about those kids at home, the wives, maybe a husband or two, the birthday parties missed, the soccer games missed, the life missed. It is not all glorious.

Yes it is!

I have always had a fondness of the Stratosaurus Rex.

Aren't the only ones left the H's. Didn't they replace the quad .50s with a 20mm Vulcan? But even that would be useless.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
They removed the quad-50s from B-52s in 1991 as a cost saving measure.

Against a modern fighter, the only real protection is avoidance in combination with other friendly fighters keeping enemy away.

Even with the quad-50s (if they had kept them), they would have pretty much no offensive protection capability.

Amazing aircraft nonetheless.