B-52H Stratofortress

Description
The B-52 Stratofortress is the longest serving aircraft in USAF history at over 50 years on the job, and it will continue to serve the Air Force until at least 2045. The B-52H is the only remaining variant available with 92 aircraft of this type, and the last B-52 built was in 1962. It has gone through a plethora of performance upgrades throughout its service history, with the latest one being an Advanced Weapons Integration system which allows it to independently drop modern GPS-guided JDAMS and LGB's. It can hold up to 51 conventional Mk.82 GBU's and is projected to carry up to 180 of the new GBU-39 small-diameter bombs. It also has the ability to air-drop cruise missiles from stand-off distances with pinpoint accuracy. All variants of the B-52 up to the B-52G were armed with four .50 caliber machine guns in the tail to defend against hostile fighters, with the B-52H being armed with a 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon until the mid-1990's when the cannon was removed due to changes in technology and Air Force doctrine rendering such defensive armaments obsolete. Its eight TF33-P-3/103 turbofan engines can carry a maximum payload up to a range of 8,800 miles, but in-flight refueling can extend its range infinitely with the only limitations being the endurance of the crew. The price for one unit is $53,400,000 USD.

The variant featured ingame is the B-52H Stratofortress.

Armament

 * UGBS: 51x Mk.82 500lb Bomb
 * GPB: 180x GBU-39 SDB or 51x JDAM
 * Cruise missile: AGM-86C ALCM or AGM-129 ACM
 * Nuclear Bomb: 8x B83 or B61 thermonuclear weapons

Comparable Aircraft

 * B-29A Superfortress
 * Victor
 * Tu-95 Bear
 * B-47E Stratojet
 * YB-60 Peacemaker II
 * Avro Vulcan

Related Development

 * B-47E Stratojet
 * BM-335

Source

 * Global Security - http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/b-52.htm