B-52 Stratofortress

by Bill Yenne

  One such officer told American intelligence personnel that he surrendered only because of B-52G strikes.

  “But your position was never attacked by B-52Gs,” his interrogator replied.

  “That is true,” the Iraqi officer stated, “but I saw one that had been attacked.”

  By the latter half of February, the Coalition air power was thoroughly involved in paving the way for the ground offensive, which was scheduled for the end of the month. As the Gulf War Air Power Survey notes, General Schwarzkopf’s CENTCOM headquarters confirmed on February 16 that “battlefield preparations, to include mine breaching by B-52s, will remain the primary focus of the air war.”

  To this end, B-52Gs bombed the minefields with M117 bombs, as well as 500-pound Mk 82 bombs, while MC-130s dropped 15,000-pound BLU-82 “daisy-cutter” bombs to create over-pressure and detonate mines.

  On “G-Day,” February 24, the thirty-ninth day of the air war, the Coalition launched the long-awaited offensive ground campaign to liberate Kuwait. As the Defense Department Final Report states, around three thousand air sorties were flown, including “more than 1,200 against armor, artillery and infantry, and others against ‘selected’ airfields, bridges, arms plants, nuclear-biological-chemical and command, control, and communications sites. . . Forty-three B-52G struck Iraqi defenses and infantry positions in the Kuwait Theater of Operations.”

  According to Keaney and Cohen in Gulf War Air Power Survey, Summary Report, the “B-52s flew around the clock: on the first day, they hit breaching sites and front line forces; on subsequent days they struck headquarters and staging areas just south of the Euphrates River in Iraq. The plan intended to put maximum pressure on the Iraqi forces with every type of strike aircraft at the Coalition’s disposal.”

  Thanks to the air campaign and its thorough preparation of the battlefield, the ground aspect of Operation Desert Storm lasted but four days. Iraqi forces in Kuwait resisted, but the resistance was quickly overcome. The Iraqis surrendered, and a ceasefire went into effect at 0500 on February 28, 1991.

  Keaney and Cohen note that the B-52Gs flew 457 strike sorties in January and 1,188 in February, for a total of 1,645. In their “Listing of Selected Munitions Employed in Desert Storm” they mention that the Stratofortresses dropped 43,435 tons of M117s alone.

  Several BUFFs suffered damage from antiaircraft fire, including one that lost much of its tail to an SA-3 SAM. One B-52G was hit by an AGM-88A HARM missile in a friendly fire incident. Only a single BUFF was lost in the Gulf War, but it was officially not due to enemy fire. While returning from a mission, this aircraft suffered a catastrophic electrical failure and crashed into the Indian Ocean about 17 miles northwest of Diego Garcia, killing three of the six crew members on board. Some sources say that battle damage was at least a contributing factor in the loss.

  Desert Storm had seen the BUFF’s first sustained combat operations since 1972, and one might extrapolate from the statistical data that the B-52 might be considered to have been the single most important strike aircraft type in the Coalition arsenal.

  As Keaney and Cohen summarize, the Stratofortresses dropped “approximately thirty-two percent of the bomb tonnage in the war (most of it in the Kuwait theater), attacked area targets (breaching sites, ammunition stockpiles, troop concentrations, and military field headquarters) and became one of the most sought-after aircraft by the ground commanders for strikes against Iraqi ground forces.”

  A December 1993 view of B-52G and B-52D aircraft parked in storage at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona. USAF photo, Sgt. John McDowell

  THE B-52GS RETURNED from Desert Storm to accept their scheduled retirement from service. Though this had been delayed by the Gulf War, it was accelerated when the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed by President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on July 31, 1991. START called for the entire B-52G fleet to be scrapped, and this was done in dramatic fashion.

  All of the venerable aircraft were flown to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC), the site at Arizona’s Davis-Monthan AFB previously known as the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center (MASDC). Here, they were stripped of usable parts and chopped into five pieces by a “guillotine,” a 13,000-pound steel blade dropped from a crane that cut off the wings and chopped each fuselage into three pieces. From a total of 230 B-52Gs and B-52Hs at the end of 1990, the fleet was reduced to just 85 B-52Hs by the end of 1994, a force level that would remain constant for more than a decade.

  In September 1991, two months after signing START and seven months after the Gulf War, Bush ordered the Strategic Air Command to stand down the continuous strategic alert that its bomber and ICBM crews had been on for nearly four decades. No longer would B-52 crews be primed to fly a nuclear strike mission with fifteen-minute notice.

  At the same time, Bush ordered a reorganization of the post–Cold War U.S. Air Force, which included the consolidation of the warfighting commands and the elimination of SAC itself—something that would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier.

  Effective on May 31, 1992, the functions, units, personnel, and combat aircraft of both SAC and TAC were consolidated into a single Air Combat Command (ACC), with SAC’s ICBM force going to the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). Most of SAC’s tanker fleet was merged with the transport aircraft fleet of the Military Airlift Command (MAC) into the new Air Mobility Command (AMC). Nine B-52Hs were transferred to the Air Force Reserve (AFRES)—Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) after 1997—the first time that Stratofortresses served with the reserve force.

  Meanwhile, the Defense Department formed a new joint command to manage the nuclear strike assets of both the U.S. Navy and Air Force. This organization, the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), would take over the former SAC headquarters at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. Ironically, Curtis LeMay had proposed such a merger in 1959, but met resistance from the U.S. Navy. The first commander of STRATCOM, was Gen. George Butler, SAC’s last commander.

  As the Damocles Sword of nuclear war was perceived as finally removed, and veteran B-52Gs beaten into plowshares, an era came to an end.

  In the United States, defense spending declined, and there were those in government who spoke naively of a “Peace Dividend,” as though the end of the Cold War meant an end to all threats to “peace.” Of course, despite the lifting of the Damocles Sword, the 1990s were, if anything, less peaceful for American armed forces than the 1970s or 1980s had been.

  The remaining B-52Hs, which had yet to be in combat as the decade began, finally had a brief baptism of fire in 1996 during Operation Desert Strike. In response to Saddam Hussein’s brutal repression of an uprising by the Kurdish minority around Urbil in northern Iraq, the United States launched a series of air attacks on September 3. As part of the strike package, two B-52Hs from the 2nd Bombardment Wing launched from Andersen AFB on Guam and attacked air defense sites in southern Iraq with thirteen AGM-86C CALCMs. Parenthetically, one year earlier, on August 25, 1995, a B-52H from the same wing had set a new speed record for aircraft of its weight class, flying eleven hours twenty-three minutes unrefueled, with an average speed of 556 miles per hour.

  The USAF’s Air Combat Command (ACC) was created on June 1, 1992, by combining the aircraft and personnel of the Strategic Air Command and the Tactical Air Command. In 2010, control of nuclear-capable strategic bombers, including the BUFF, was moved from ACC to the newly constituted Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). USAF

  United States Strategic Command was created on June 1, 1992 as one of nine Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Department of Defense. It was seen as a successor to SAC, in that it took over control of SAC’s strategic nuclear strike and strategic reconnaissance assets, as well as SAC’s former headquarters at Offutt AFB. DoD

  A pair of B-52Hs on a training mission over a western bombing range. USAF

  Two visiting Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bo
mber aircraft, center, and an Antonov An-124 Condor transport aircraft of the Russian military, background, are parked on the Barksdale AFB flight line beside a B-52H of the 62nd Bombardment Squadron in May 1992. The Bear originated in the early 1950s concurrently with the B-52, and with its 35-degree wing sweep and turboprop engines driving contra-rotating propellers, it was seen by some as a knockoff of Boeing’s early Model 464 proposals. USAF photo, Sgt. Fernando Serna

  Stand-Off Missiles, the Third Generation

  Among the new weapons systems being developed as the Cold War came to a close was General Dynamics (later Raytheon) AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile (ACM). Nearly identical in size and weight to the AGM-86 ALCM, it incorporated stealth characteristics and had a longer range of 2,300 miles. The initial acquisition plan for 2,500 ACMs was scaled back several times and terminated in 1993 after about 460 AGM-129As were delivered. Long assumed to be the successor to the AGM-86 family, the ACM would be phased out in 2007, leaving the ALCM still in the U.S. Air Force inventory.

  Another weapon acquired to extend the conventional stand-off reach of the Stratofortress was the AGM-142, which was derived from the Popeye missile developed in Israel by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It was adapted for the U.S. Air Force by Precision Guided Systems, a joint venture of Rafael and Lockheed Martin, under the Have Nap program. Weighing 3,000 pounds, the AGM-142 is 15 feet 10 inches long. The generally similar variants include the AGM-142A with an electro-optical seeker, the AGM-142B with an infrared seeker, the AGM-142C with an electro-optical seeker and a hardened target penetrating warhead, and the AGM-142D with an infrared seeker and the penetrating warhead. The U.S. Air Force acquired its first 154 AGM-142s in 1989, but would not use them in combat until 2001.

  A dramatic studio image of the AGM-158 joint air-to-surface stand-off missile (JASSM). Lockheed Martin

  An AGM-129 advanced cruise missile during an early test flight.

  The AGM-142 was originally acquired only for the B-52G, because its Heavy Stores Adapter Beams (HSAB) gave it the carrying capacity that was lacking in the B-52H. In 1994, after the scrapping of the B-52Gs, the B-52Hs underwent a Conventional Enhancement Modification (CEM), which fitted them with HSABs to permit them to carry and fire a broad range of conventional weapons. In addition to the AGM-142, the B-52H could now carry the AGM-84 Harpoon, as well as the AGM-84E Stand-off Land Attack Missile (SLAM), and the AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW). Recently included in the BUFF’s arsenal is the Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM), which entered service in 2009.

  Enter JDAM

  At a time when complex air-launched weapons systems such as the AGM-86 ALCM and CALCM, as well as the AGM-129 and AGM-142, were garnering a great deal of attention, a less-heralded air-launched weapon was making its way through the development process. The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) program was initiated in 1992 in response to the experiences of pilots flying ground attack missions in poor weather during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The idea was to develop a relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated way to convert existing unguided free-fall “dumb” bombs into accurate, “smart” munitions usable in adverse weather. The result was a kit that includes a new tail section containing a Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Navigation System (INS) for a guidance control unit.

  The first JDAM kits were the GBU-31, designed for use with 2,000-pound BLU-109 and Mk 84 bombs, and the GBU-32, for 1,000-pound BLU-110 and Mk 83 weapons. In 1999, Boeing introduced the GBU-38 JDAM kit for the Mk 82 500-pound bomb.

  The first deliveries came in 1998, and the total numbers delivered reached 200,000 within a decade. The large quantity is attributable to the success of the JDAM concept as seen during Operation Allied Force in 1999.

  Allied Force

  At the end of the 1990s, the United States became involved in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervention in the Balkans during the collapse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Through the decade, most of the major components of the “former Yugoslavia,” such as Croatia and Slovenia, had peeled off to form independent countries. Serbia, still calling itself Yugoslavia, had earned the ire of the international community through the tactics it used—ranging from ethnic cleansing to mere bloodshed—to forestall the toppling of dominos that marked Yugoslav disintegration. By 1998, Serbian/Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was fighting a deadly war to keep Kosovo in the fold, using especially fierce brutality against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) insurgents and the people of Kosovo.

  Three B-52 Stratofortresses from Barksdale AFB taxi to the runway at RAF Fairford for an Allied Force mission. USAF

  A B-52H from the 2nd Bombardment Wing trails a drag chute upon landing at RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom. In October 1998, the wing forward-deployed five aircraft in support of possible strikes against Serbian targets. Sgt. James Howard

  During the summer of 1998, there were calls for NATO to intervene with military air power, as they had for a month in 1995 during the Serbian ethnic cleansing of Bosnia and Herzegovina. NATO defense ministers initiated contingency planning for such a move, and U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen ordered a buildup of American air power in the region similar to that which took place in 1995 in preparation for Operation Deliberate Force.

  On October 8, 1998, Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. John Hamre promised that the U.S. Air Force would deploy its ultimate bomber, the “very expensive” B-2A Spirit stealth bomber as part of the strike package. Two days later, Cohen also ordered the deployment of six B-52Hs from the 2nd Bombardment Wing at Barksdale AFB to RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom, from which B-52Gs had flown against targets in Iraq seven years earlier. Two more arrived on February 22, 1999, as NATO slowly prepared for “possible contingency operations” in Kosovo.

  An airman secures an AGM-84C CALCM aboard a B-52H at RAF Fairford on March 25, 1999. Note that the tail gun has been removed from this BUFF. USAF photo, Sgt. James Howard

  A B-52 Stratofortress, from the 5th Bombardment Wing, Minot AFB, takes off, homeward bound, on June 23, 1999, after supporting Operation Allied Force. USAF photo, Sgt. James Howard

  A B-52H of the 2nd Air Expeditionary Group heads toward a target in Kosovo on May 26, 1999, during an Operation Allied Force mission. USAF photo, Senior Airman Greg Davis

  This spectacular photograph shows a B-52H moments before it crashed at Fairchild AFB during low-level aerobatics on June 24, 1994. The copilot’s escape hatch has been jettisoned, but none of the crew escaped. USAF

  On March 24, NATO finally launched the air operation against Serbia, designated as Operation Allied Force. Among the roughly 210 American aircraft involved were four of the B-52Hs. The USAFE News Service reported that “the bombers launched and headed home to Louisiana after participating in the first wave of air strikes over the former Republic of Yugoslavia.”

  The BUFFs were not alone among the aircraft of the former SAC. According to the Air Force Print News agency, “When five B-1B bombers were ordered to deploy to Europe March 29 in support of NATO operations in Yugoslavia, it marked a milestone in modern bomber history. Operation Allied Force is the first time the Air Force’s heavy bomber fleet—the B-2 Spirit, B-52H Stratofortress and B-1B Lancer—are being used together operationally.”

  At the end of April, the BUFF fleet was augmented by an additional eight from Barksdale and two from the 5th Bombardment Wing at Minot AFB in North Dakota, which deployed to Fairford on April 29. According to a Defense Department briefing the same day, the B-52Hs were armed with CALCMs, as well as “a variety of other weapons.” These included AGM-129 ACMs and AGM-142 Have Nap precision-guided munitions. The Defense Department briefer specifically noted that “five of the B-52Hs that we are sending over, of this new batch of B-52Hs, are outfitted to fire the Have Nap.”

  Slobodan Milosevic discovered in 1999, as Saddam Hussein discovered in 1991 and as Adolf Hitler discovered in 1944, that a sustained aerial bombardment campaign can take a serious toll on a nation�
�s ability to wage war. As the Viet Cong and the Iraqi Republican Guard on the front lines had discovered, the awesome power of a B-52’s bomb load is a horrible thing to endure, and experiencing it firsthand is a horrible way to make that discovery.

  By the end of May 1999, the BUFF had established its reputation among the ethnic cleansers of the Serbian army. On May 30, the BBC repeated a report from the Serbian news agency Beta that NATO aircraft “had dropped leaflets over the Kosovo capital Pristina urging Serbian troops to desert their units and leave or face bombardment by B-52 bombers.”

  A B-52H from the 96th Bombardment Squadron, deployed to the 2nd Air Expeditionary Group on Diego Garcia in November 1998 as part of Operation Desert Thunder, a force buildup for possible action against Iraq in response to attempted Iraqi interceptions of American reconnaissance aircraft. USAF photo, Senior Airman Sarah Shaw, USAF Photo

  A close-up view of a B-52H as it makes a bomb drop in August 1995. The BUFF from the 96th Bombardment Squadron set a record for flying, unrefueled, and with a payload of 5,000 kilograms, from Edwards AFB to Greenland and back. USAF photo, Richard Kemp

  According to the BBC, the Serbian-language leaflets read “The Yugoslav Army forces are warned to leave Kosovo, because NATO is now using B-52 bombers to cast Mk 82 bombs, weighing 225 kilograms each. . . . Every B-52 bomber can carry more than 50 such bombs. These aircraft will be after you until they drive you out of Kosovo. . . and prevent you from committing atrocities. . . . If you want to survive and see your families again, you should abandon your units and firearms.”