BARKSDALE AFB, La.–As the United States and Iran remain at loggerheads over the Iranian nuclear program, satellite photos this week have shown four B-52H bombers at the U.S.-U.K. base on the island of Diego Garcia, which could serve as a jumping off point for U.S. bombers. Air Force officials decline to say whether the aircraft are from the 2nd Bomb wing based here.
While the Boeing [BA] B-52H and the
Northrop Grumman [NOC] B-2A Spirit stealth bomber were test aircraft for the Boeing 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator “bunker buster,” the B-2 would carry the weapon, as the B-2’s stealth would give the plane an advantage in areas with significant air defense. Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment plant near Qoms is hundreds of feet under a mountain—a burial making it hard for smaller, conventional Israeli and U.S. munitions to destroy.
While B-2s are the go-to in dense air defense zones, the behemoth B-52Hs, made in the early 1960s, can also play a role, as they may carry up to 20 Lockheed Martin [LMT] Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile variants, which have ranges in the hundreds of miles. Beyond the increased use of smart weapons by the B-52H, the latter is a bomb truck for whatever the weapon type.
“When I had the 23rd Bomb Squadron [between 2016-18], for four consecutive months my six jets prosecuted more targets than the entire USS Reagan carrier air wing,” said Air Force Col. Michael Maginness, the commander of the 2nd Bomb Wing. “In many ways, we are the asset of choice because what I bring that the fighters don’t is I can stay on station 12 hours, and I have enough weapons to stay on station for 12 hours.”
The B-52H’s electronic warfare systems include the L3Harris Technologies‘ [LHX] ALQ-172 and the Northrop Grumman [NOC] ALQ-155 and ALR-46 radar warning receiver, but keeping the bomber out of harm’s way in contested air zones may be a matter of stitching together sensor inputs from other assets.
“When we talk defense capabilities, nothing is self-contained and organic any more,” Maginness said. “We tend not to talk in equipment. We talk in capability. I need the capability to see the high power illuminator on this threat. Whether that’s something organic on my jet, or if that goes down, I’ve got another asset that has the ability to pass me that, or an AWACS, what I need is to know when that thing is illuminating.”
The Air Force views the future Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider bomber as its critical “stand-in” manned platform.
Asked if and how the concept of operations (CONOPS) for the B-52H will change, Maginness replied, “I don’t think of us as stand-in or stand-off.”
“I think of us as complementary to the strike package,” he said. “Quite frankly, I wish I could give you a hard and fast answer, but there isn’t. Night 1, I am probably more stand-off kicking down the door. When I was flying over Syria, there were times when we would use the jet as an internet hot spot in the sky–as a communications relay–with our JREAP [Joint Range Extension Applications Protocol] system–to get the proper command and control to the guys who needed it, while we’re doing all the other stuff. No one’s going alone and unafraid now. Having seen the CONOPS, the B-52 is very complementary to the B-21 and the B-2.”