Why the B-52 Bomber no longer activates its tail guns
Team Mighty
Published February 15, 2023 13:02:48
The B-52 Stratofortress is one of the oldest airframes in the U.S. military arsenal, taking its first flight in 1952. But the B-52s that are flying today are very different aircraft than the ones first flown more than 70 years ago. A lot has changed in the U.S. military and among its enemies. New weapons were developed and some critical lessons were learned.
One of those lessons came in the days of the American victory in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. At first, the Air Force announced the tail gunner’s position aboard the aircraft would be eliminated and the tail gun deactivated as a cost-saving measure, but it was actually an incident during Operation Desert Storm that caused the decision – saving money was just a nice side effect.
Desert Storm was the offensive period of the Gulf War. After building up its forces for months, demanding the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The United States and its Coalition partners finally took the war to Saddam Hussein on January 16, 1991. At this time, B-52 Bombers ran bombing missions on fixed targets, Scud missiles sites, and the Iraqi Army, flying more than 1,740 sorties during the war, dropping a third of the total ordnance dropped during the war.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/intel/why-the-b-52-bomber-no-longer-activates-its-tail-guns/
