A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, arrive at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, Saturday, April 9, 2016. The U.S. Air Force says it has deployed the bombers to take part in the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State group. It is the first time the Cold War-era heavy bombers will be based in the region since the 1991 Gulf War, when they operated from neighboring Saudi Arabia. (Staff Sgt. Corey Hook/U.S. Air Force via AP)
An unknown number of B-52s will be based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the U.S. Air Force Central Command said in a statement.
“The B-52s will provide the coalition continued precision and deliver desired airpower effects,” Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., commander, U.S. Air Forces Central Command and Combined Forces Air Component said, Fox News reported.
B-52s are not supersonic like the B-1s, but they also have long legs and can also loiter over the battlefield for nearly 12 hours and carry over a dozen precision guided bombs or up to 50 500-pound bombs. It can also carry nuclear weapons.
The first B-52s were built over 60 years ago during the Eisenhower administration. Despite two generations of bombers built since, B-52s still constitute the bulk of the US Air Force’s long-range bomber fleet. They are based in Louisiana and North Dakota.
Stella's Place 
Bringing in the big bad boys. I love it.
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Now if they will just let them drop the d#$m bombs where they need to go. 😡
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Warm up the bullpen baby!!! Time too lay some carpet!! Of course we will never see the daily air mission tasking order, load out, or complete strike package. These BUFFs do carry a load out of multiple smart munitions, more than they average fighter. Multiple smart bombs, multiple targets….Val Jar probably approved the routes in/out, targets, and will post the FAA flight plans daily. Only the Soviets AA can reach these guys, hopefully all systems will be turned on…
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God Bless those men and women who sit in those seats……..
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Oddly enough, in the last couple of weeks there was an article in the paper about 2 female flight crews – here!
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Right, but now they go so much ECM on board that they could steal service from DirecTV. I’m betting that the latter-day Wild Weasels are flying close too, ready to deliver HARM to any SAMs dumb enough to plug in.
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They’re not saying which configuration they’re using but the big bruiser, the ‘D’ model, could carry a load of 64 500-pound bombs and 24 750-pound bombs each, that’s 50,000 pounds. Alternate load was 108 500-pound bombs or 27 tons of boom.
BUFF entered the service in ’55, ten years before I did and, nine years after I retired it’s still flying. If you go by Tinker AFB outside of OKC you may still get to see what was called The Mile Long Hanger, they can winch a BUFF in one side and completely rebuild it before it comes out the other.
Back in the early 60s we could camp in the little field off the end of the runway when the BUFFs would take off right over us.
I got to see Arc Light drops in Vietnam and the aftermaths of some in places we were not supposed to be in. Imagine what a dozen or so places each dropping some 50 thousand pounds of bombs can do… ISIS beeter start sacrificing livestock ASAP in hopes their moon goddess can save their asses and everything connected to both sides of their asses, the Pale Horse cometh.
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‘…a dozen or more planes…’, sheesh, come on Apple, I realize you’re pacifists but there’s a limit to autocomplete.
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Would that not be “carpet bombing”?
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That’s one name for it, but I found that term rather inadaquate – more like ‘mower bombing’. The effects of an Arc Light bombing on forest is something like a huge mower cutting a swath. In the more deserty Syrian or Iraqi areas I guess it would be nore carpet-like, lotsa holes.
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Our CiC has basically said this would not be done in Syria/Iraq.
So what will be the use of the B-52s?
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Well this wouldn’t be the first time he’s tap danced himself 180 from what he said but the 52s can also carry a lot of ordnance other than dimb bombs so if one drops a shipload of ordnance with terminal guidance and we have team with designators on the ground you have a more precision ending to the mission. Let’s say one orbits and drops a few terminally guided bombs at a time, let’s say that you dropped a huge load of dumbidh ordnance a few at a time…it’s all in how you spin the definition of what ‘is’ is.
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“The Pale Horse cometh”. Amen!!!
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