U.S. Air Force Has Kicked Off The B-52’s Radar Modernization Program
May 31, 2023
Military Aviation
DAVID CENCIOTTI
The B-52 Radar Modernization Program has just started.
With the landing at a Boeing Co., facility in San Antonio, of a B-52 Stratofortress bomber assigned to the 307th Bomb Wing from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, the Air Force’s B-52 Radar Modernization Program has officially started: the aircraft will in fact receive the Active Electronically Scanned Array system (AESA).
“The arrival of this aircraft is a big deal, and signals the beginning of a key part of our effort to modernize the B-52 fleet,” said Col. Louis Ruscetta, Senior Materiel Leader for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s B-52 Program Office, which is leading the Radar Modernization Program, and overall effort to modernize the bomber, in a public release. “AESA will replace 1960s radar technology, and greatly increase the navigation and targeting capabilities of the B-52 in higher threat areas.”
As part of the upgrades the B-52 fleet will receive, there is also the new radar, a modified valiant of the F/A-18EF Super Hornet’s APG-79 AESA radar, that will give the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fellow) greatly improved radar range and situational awareness, while taking less space then the older mechanically scanned radar, thus leaving room for electronic warfare functions.
https://theaviationist.com/2023/05/31/u-s-air-force-has-kicked-off-the-b-52s-radar-modernization-program/
