Can the United States really be in such a predicament? With parts unavailable, the U.S. is now forced to dismantle B-52 bombers! On September 17, according to Russian media reports, General Stephen Davis, commander of the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command, stated that 17 bombers are stacked up in maintenance facilities due to insufficient spare parts—forcing us to cannibalize B-52s just to keep other aircraft flying.
Evidently, while rumors about the U.S. missile stockpile running low have circulated, it's shocking to learn that maintaining its bomber fleet has reached such a dire state—so much so that they must disassemble one aircraft to scavenge parts for others. To be honest, the U.S. may simply have no choice right now. In fact, the production line for the B-52 bomber was completely shut down back in 1962; many original component manufacturers have long vanished, and factory-supplied spare parts are no longer available. As a result, the U.S. military is left with no option but to “patch one plane with parts from another.”
Some might ask: these planes are all products of the 1960s, and even the youngest of their kind is already 63 years old—why hasn’t the U.S. retired them yet? The truth is, this very issue reflects the current crisis facing the U.S. military. America currently has three main bomber models, but none can immediately fill the gap. The B-1B Lancer suffers from severe structural fatigue, high failure rates, and extremely expensive maintenance. The U.S. military has already planned to retire the entire fleet by 2036—making it impossible to rely on for long-term operations.
Meanwhile, the advanced B-2 stealth bomber, which only produced 21 units, now has just a dozen or so operational aircraft after several losses. While capable of serving as a precision strike blade, its limited numbers cannot sustain routine missions, and its maintenance costs are prohibitively high. The next-generation stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, won’t begin delivery until 2027, and full-scale combat capability will take even longer to achieve. Thus, if the U.S. were to retire the B-52 today, a massive gap in aerial combat power would emerge.
Although the current B-52 fleet is outdated, fuel-hungry, slow-flying, and non-stealthy, it does possess one major advantage: extremely low operating cost, vast range (up to 14,000–16,000 kilometers), and substantial payload capacity—making it an ideal long-range strategic bombing platform. Therefore, faced with this aging fleet, the U.S. strategy is to upgrade internal systems, extending their service life by decades. Consequently, the B-52 cannot be retired yet—it must be kept operational by recycling parts.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1876545688883212/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.