دانلود کتاب واحدهای B-52 Stratofortress در نبرد 1992-2025

In 1990 the US Air Force (USAF) still had 94 of its 102 B-52H Stratofortresses, originally delivered between May 1961 and 26 October 1962 (the same day that the final B-58A Hustler supersonic bomber was handed over by Convair), in service. Sixty-two were built with Fiscal Year (FY) 1960 funding and 40 in FY 61. In October 1962 there were 42 B-52 squadrons within Strategic Air Command (SAC) operating around 700 aircraft. Until September 1991, they provided America’s very effective nuclear deterrent. At the height of the Cold War, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, B-52s completed 2000 sorties, generating 50,000 flying hours on nuclear alert within the 30 days of that potentially catastrophic confrontation with the Soviet Union. By 2022 the active B-52 fleet had diminished through international arms reduction treaties to 76 aircraft, with 58 in active service with the 2nd Bomb Wing (BW) at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, and the 5th BW at Minot AFB, North Dakota. A further 18 were flown by the 93rd Bomb Squadron (BS) of Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), also at Barksdale. From 1992 onwards the Stratofortress remained a key component in the trio of heavy, long-range bombers assigned to Air Combat Command (ACC), which, from February 2010, became Air Force Global Strike Command, and on present estimates it will continue to serve long after the other two far more recently introduced aircraft, the Rockwell B-1B Lancer and Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, have been withdrawn. Since 1992, the B-52 has been a key weapon in most of the conflicts which have involved American forces worldwide, despite the judgement by the USAF’s Chief of Staff, Gen Merrill McPeak, in 1993 that ‘the B-52 looks to me like a sunset system’. Within the US government at that time there was pressure to relegate the B-52 to second line units, but international tensions have invariably provided good reasons to keep the surviving examples on active service. During its 70 years of operational flying, the Stratofortress has been sustained by numerous changes, updates and structural renovations. The first examples to be converted from nuclear-only capability to conventional bombing were a batch of B-52Fs in the 1964 South Bay programme. They went on to undertake combat roles in Vietnam, followed by B-52Ds and some B-52Gs. Project Straight Pin in the early 1960s strengthened the bomber’s wing-to-fuselage joint, while regular re-skinning of the wings and areas of the fuselage has combated fatigue. New EFC-manufactured crashresistant polyurethane fuel tanks were installed in B-52Hs from 2007. The B-52H’s defensive 20 mm gun armament was deleted from October 1991 to reduce costs, although the equipment associated with the weapon was retained so that it might be re-installed if necessary, as was the ejection seat in the gunner’s position, which was made available for an instructor pilot. Self-protection for the bomber then became the sole responsibility of the electronic warfare officer, who monitors threats from hostile radars, jams many of them and relays the information to the pilots. This jamming capability can often be of use to protect other aircraft in a strike package. Despite having a much larger radar signature and lower speed than the B- 1B, with which it has often operated in recent conflicts, the B-52H is still viable as a carrier of varied 70,000-lb weapons loads over long distances.