How quickly can you climb that BUFF? I’ve been passing thru about 15 miles south of Barksdale the past few days and haven’t seen y’all. Even at FL250, I should be able to find ya.

The BUFF does not lack for climb performance. We get outta town in a hurry.

1974-1977 I was a copilot on B52H model at KI SAWYER AFB in the UP of Michigan. As I recall most planes had a little over 6000 hours. Was surprised when I went to work for American Airlines their B727-100s were in the mid 60,000 hours. If it ain’t Boeing I’m not going. Never flew a flying Renault. (Scare Bus).

My fiancé was born at KI and I have flown into KSAW the last two years.

You guys were in G models up there, the Hs had super low time because they all sat alert and never went anywhere. First combat use of the H model was in 1996. When I started flying the H in 1995 some had less than 10k

I do not know this for certain but in mid 1970s we had a Major that pissed somebody off and he was sent from F4 phantoms to the H model. He was an excellent pilot and claimed that a H model weighing less than 325,000# would out climb the F4 to 25,000ft. Max Gross was 488,000#. Interesting tid bit. During Cold War sitting alert you were to attempt 6 engine TO if that’s all you could get started. NO BULL! Hey, it didn’t matter because the Rooskies would be raining nukes on you 15 minutes after the Claxton sounded.

There are some fairly ancient E-2s rolling around, but none as old as the BUFF.

Strangely, the newest Navy aircraft I ever flew was a Blimp.

Newest military aircraft I ever flew was a 2010 Army "C-12" (it started life as one anyways) which is just a King Air 350 with stuff bolted on.

I had thought that B-52Hs were involved in Linebacker II over Hanoi. Apparently they were all Ds and Gs? Not a BUFF guy I was on the receiving end of the Xmas bombing. (And damned glad to see it happen)

We had 2 D's and 4 F's at Griffiss until 1980ish. They would taxi them around once in a while when a Soviet satellite would be overhead. We got them flyable for their final flight to Davis Montham after Salt II was ratified. I'm sure the USSR played the same games.

If I had been a bit early in UPT, I would have flown brand new aircraft.

MD ANG got most of their A-10s right off the assembly line in HGR. So we had aircraft with single digit hours.

By the time I was back from training, the airplanes were about 1 - 2 years old.

My old boss (Marv Stibich) presented a paper at the 2000 AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference about the B-52 "Fly the Airplane Your Great Grandfather Flew"

And another generation has passed since then. Up to Great Great Grandfather by now!

New engines are a great upgrade for this plane, although that should have been done decades ago.

B-21 is a great upgrade and I’m hoping to be at the unveiling 2 Dec 22.

The B-52 will remain a strong contributor for many years, but we need new capabilities

B-21 is a great upgrade and I’m hoping to be at the unveiling 2 Dec 22.

The B-52 will remain a strong contributor for many years, but we need new capabilities

I wouldn't think it's either-or.
There is always going to be a need for a large platform that can stand-off at a large distance where stealth is not needed, with the more important factor being how many cruise missiles it can carry.

First T-38 flew in '59. I flew a '59 model at Holloman in the late 80's. Had around 13,000 hours which I though was a lot, but many are now well over 20,000 hrs. The earlier jets have been retired, and mostly on the flightline, at least at Sheppard, are mid-late 60's and early 70's tails. It is a tired fleet.

IIRC, when kit’d out as Dumbo the Bomb Truck, it can carry 256 JDAMS.

FWIW; C-17 and C-130 transports can also air launch cruise missles via parachute extraction out the ramp.