Dario Leone of The Aviation Geek Club reviews Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution by Scott Lowther
After it became operational in 1955, the B-52 (dubbed BUFF, Big Ugly Fat F****r by her aircrews) remained the main long-range heavy bomber of the US Air Force during the Cold War, and it continues to be an important part of the USAF bomber force today.
The B-52A first flew in 1954, and the B model entered service in 1955. A total of 744 B-52s were built, with the last, a B-52H, delivered in October 1962. The first of 102 B-52H’s was delivered to Strategic Air Command in May 1961. The H model can carry up to 20 air-launched cruise missiles. In addition, it can carry conventional cruise missiles that were launched in several contingencies starting in the 1990s with Operation Desert Storm and culminating with Operation Inherent Resolve in 2016.
As explained by Scott Lowther in his book Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress Origins and Evolution, the Air Force System Command began a study of a strategic air-launched ballistic missile dubbed Longbow in 1978. DARPA added funds to the effort with the aim of making the missile dual-use. It could be armed with a single nuclear warhead for the ground-attack role or it could be equipped with a seeker for long-range air-to-air missions.
Longbow came about during a rather dark period in American strategic weapons development; the Carter administration had just cancelled the B-1 in favour of a rather theoretical stealthy bomber. The Peacekeeper ICBM and Pershing II medium range ballistic missile were in development, but it was not smooth sailing as both had substantial opposition from both many politicians and public protestors at home and abroad.
Two cruise missiles were under development but there was no certainty that these would work as expected or survive political hurdles, and many of the proposed launch options for them involved cheap options such as modified jetliners. Longbow provided the possibility of a different capability altogether harkening back to the Skybolt.
As a strategic missile, Longbow would have carried a single nuclear warhead and would have had a range of about 2,000 nautical miles. This put it ahead of Skybolt and the Pershing II battlefield support missile in terms of range (each could go about 1,100 miles). In order to achieve this, it would have been a two-stage solid rocket weighing 4,000-5,000lb.
Launch trajectory for both roles would involve the missile lofting above the atmosphere; much of the distance travelled would be in space with no meaningful drag. The anti-air version would turn some of the re-entry energy into manoeuvre energy, using an undefined seeker system to hunt down its targets.
The air-to-air version was to have a manoeuvring entry vehicle and was meant to take out multiple aircraft. Available documentation does not detail how it was to do this; presumably it would have been equipped with a nuclear warhead in the kiloton range, the only really effective approach to defeating large numbers of aircraft with a single missile.
It’s unclear how the B-52, carrying 12-16 Longbows on external pylons and within the bomb bay, would know where to send them for the anti-aircraft mission. The B-52’s onboard radar systems were in no way capable of spotting aircraft thousands of miles away. Presumably the bomber would receive targeting information from other aircraft or even satellites.
The details available on Longbow are few, but it was about half the size of either Pershing Il or Skybolt, yet could surpass them in terms of range while carrying an RV of about the same size as the MK 12. That’s impressive, if not downright questionable.
Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress Origins and Evolution is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here.
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