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Hm, I do not understand the context here.
The B-52 is very old and there is no real replacment. The newest one was made in 1962
The C-130 was designed at about the same time and they're still making new ones right now
Okay going to be a buzz kill here. The B52 of now is not the B52 of the past. It was designed as carpet bomber. However in the world of precision munitions, carpet bombing is just not needed. But no matter what decade you are in, war still requires a shit ton of munitions and some way of hauling them. The B52 is that munitions hauler. The reason why no replacement, is simple, good luck trying to convince the Pentagon to spend a shit ton of money to design, engineer, and build what is essential a giant glorified truck. As weird as it may seem, it makes economically sense to keep the old girl working.
I listened to the Lockheed Martin episode of Acquired and man...the military industrial complex has its hand so deep inside the Pentagon's ass....
A new plane simply is too expensive to build today. Not because it's hard. But because there are too many mouths to feed.
There's tons of cargo plane models, why not use one of them?
Military aircraft have lots of specific technical requirements that civilian planes dont deal with.
There are plenty of military cargo planes. They have the C designation. C130 is a popular one.
Thats tiny baby plane. Need big big plane, but not too big. Just right size and range.
There are a whole shit ton of models for every need and size.
Let me know which one is right Ill let the Joint Chiefs know.
If you are the one claiming it's the perfect cargo plane, even better than cargo planes, it's on you to prove it. What even is this conversation, it started you thinking cargo airplanes were civilian and then you just duck and weave on everything in the weirdest way.
I think the missing piece here is that B-52 isn't just a pretty good cargo hauler, it's a pretty good cargo hauler that we don't need to buy a whole new airframe to get. Think of it less as "we're commissioning these B-52s" and more as "hey look we found a way to use all these B-52s we already had" only this just keeps working forever.
I never claimed any of that. Perhaps you are thinking of something else?
Because of the military industrial complex.
... Which still benefits from making military cargo planes.
The b-52 is a US long range strategic heavy bomber. It's been in service for a very long time, and the reference seems to be that we'll just keep updating it until it's eventually also "new" and refreshed when the enterprise is being decommissioned.
Someone else pointed out it’s now not a bomber so much as a cargo hauler, but the phrase “Bomber of Theseus” came to mind and gave me a good chuckle.
Heh, I like that.
It can definitely haul cargo, and we have much less use for the type of bombing that it does in modern times. It was still built as a strategic bomber.
B52 has been in service for forever, it’s a pinnacle of modern (and far future, evidently) engineering.