August 23, 2018
The Air Force Would Have Serious Problems if the B-52 Bomber Never Happened
What if the BUFF had not survived the procurement battles that embroiled the Air Force and the rest of the U.S. defense establishment in the 1940s?
by Robert Farley Follow drfarls on Twitter L
It is difficult to conceive of a world in which the United States had never acquired the B-52. The decision would have had ripple effects across the Air Force and the Department of Defense, with a not inconsequential impact on the Vietnam War. Indeed, the Air Force today would look very different if it could not rely on the B-52 as both a conventional and a nuclear bomber. The B-70 Valkyrie might well still be in service; the B-1B Lancer might never have been built, and it’s not completely impossible that the B-60 would have survived to the present day in some form.
Since 1955, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress has flown at the front lines of America’s national defense. Initially intended to deliver strategic nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union, the B-52 has kept that mission long after the USSR itself ceased to exist.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/air-force-would-have-serious-problems-if-b-52-bomber-never-happened-29557
