The B-52 Stratofortress is a plane that really needs no introduction. It’s big, it’s loud, and it’s smoky. It’s also incredibly old. So old that the last airframes to roll off the production line took to the skies in the early 1960s, right in the thick of the Cold War. Despite its age, the plane commonly known as “The BUFF” remains a dependable and capable long-range bomber for the U.S. Air Force. As the B-52H enters its seventh decade of service, there are no plans to retire the type. In fact, the US Air Force has laid out a host of upgrades that will see a jet designed with slide rules become a networked, high-tech, multi-role, long-range platform of the future…and potentially serving for over a century. This deeply revamped Stratofortress that will serve alongside the B-21 Raider will be known as the B-52J. Here are all the upgrades that will make its modernization makeover complete.






Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:48 The Ultimate B-52: The Making Of The 100-Year Bomber
2:21 A Legacy Of Adaptability
4:10 Today’s Stratofortress
5:48 Powering the Future
11:33 The BUFF Sees All
14:26 The Connected B-52
16:16 Arming the B-52J

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The War Zone — also known by the shorthand TWZ — has become an essential resource for the national security community, the defense industry, and the interested public at large since it was launched in 2016. From its early beginnings to the present day, TWZ’s purpose remains the same. We stand at the nexus of military technology, strategy, and foreign policy. As a full-spectrum defense news and analysis site, TWZ covers the air, sea, land, space, and cyber domains of warfare, with an infusion of geopolitical context and technological analysis that provides viewers with deeper insights and a richer understanding of the subjects we cover than what they will find elsewhere. We have a true passion for the topics we cover and it’s an honor to be able to share that passion with our YouTube audience.

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