The cold war-era heavy bombers have
received regular updates, which could
keep the venerable B-52 flying high for
decades to come.
In recent months the B-52s have been
deployed around the world from Guam to Europe and earlier this week two
subsonic B-52s, call signs bush 11
inches and bush 12 inches flew from the
royal air force, Raft base at fairford
and conducted joint exercises with
moroccan air force F-16s in a drill to
find and sink a US Navy destroyer, forbes.com reported on tuesday.
The exercise was conducted to
demonstrate the bomber's latent
anti-ship capabilities. this isn't exactly a new role or
function for the B-52 however. Since the 1970s the strato fortress has
been utilized in ocean surveillance
missions in the atlantic and pacific and
its air crews have routinely trained
with the u.s navy in these missions.
Moreover in the 1980s the B-52 bombers
stationed in maine and guam were armed
with AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles
to counter soviet naval forces.
The bombers could descend to low
altitude, approach from different
directions and launch salvos of harpoons
to saturate defenses from upwards of 100
miles away, reported air force mag.com.
The use of the B-52 in such situations
was notable in that the bombers could
carry a large complement of missiles, but
could also be replenished in a few hours
versus the days or weeks that most
warships required.
Most importantly, the bomber had the
range to strike at the enemy's warships
well before those vessels came within
range of targeting u.s navy ships. Given that Russia and china are upping
the game with more advanced anti-ship
weapons it is easy to see why the US Military would want to utilize the B-52
in Anti-Service Warfare capacity.
In monday's exercise, two B-52s took off
from fairford and flew south to hunt the Arleigh Burke-Class guided missile
destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG-80) which was
one of four of the class of warships
that operate from spain and missile
defense patrols.
