America's oldest bombers have officially been flying for the Air Force for 70 years
The air service has been upgrading the strategic bomber for years, allowing it to continue to play a key role in the Air Force's long-range strike capability. Far from a relic, the plane can serve as a conventional missile truck and a nuclear deterrent.
Over the weekend, Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs celebrated the 70th anniversary of the delivery of the first operational B-52, which was originally delivered on June 29, 1955, to the 93rd Bomb Wing at Castle Air Force Base in California.
"For seven decades, the B-52 has stood as a symbol of American airpower," the command said in a press release. "With its unmistakable silhouette and dual-capable nature, the Stratofortress continues to serve as a visible and credible strategic deterrent for the United States and its allies."
There are 72 B-52 bombers active with the Air Force, with some in conventional roles and others still able to serve in a nuclear capacity. Others that are no longer in active service remain in long-term storage at the Air Force's "boneyard" in Arizona.
Since the 1950s, the B-52 made by Boeing Military Airplane Co. has undergone numerous upgrades that have preserved the lumbering aircraft as a formidable bomber for the Air Force.
The B-52 remains a reliable platform for long-range strategic bomber missions even though it lacks the speed of the B-1 Lancers and the stealth of the B-2 Spirits, which were used to drop bombs on three of Iran's nuclear facilities earlier this month.
The bomber boasts a lighter maintenance lift, lower operational costs, and a heavy payload.
The B-52 can carry an estimated 70,000 tons of mixed ordnance, from stand-off cruise missiles to weapons like naval mines. Emerging hypersonic weapons have also been tested on the bombers.
Though built during the Cold War to function as a high-altitude strategic bomber, it can serve a range of missions.
The B-52's airframe and durable design have kept the planes in good condition over the decades. And upgrades to their weapons capacities, communications and radars, hardware, and software have kept the planes modern, as well as capable of receiving future updates.
"Since its creation, the B-52 has anchored strategic deterrence for the nation," said Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, Eighth Air Force and Joint Global Strike Operations Center commander, per the release. He added that the Air Force is looking "to the next model to serve as the physical embodiment of the idea of peace through strength and carry us into the 2050s."
Plans for the next version of the B-52, the J-model, include engine and radar upgrades, as well as a new long-range stand-off missile that will replace the plane's aging air-launched cruise missiles.
But these planned updates have faced challenges. A US Government Accountability Office report said last year that the engine replacement program, which seeks to substitute the B-52's older engines with new military-configured commercial ones, was delayed "in part due to funding shortfalls to complete the detailed design."
The operational capability date for these engines was delayed to three years after initially planned. The Air Force originally announced plans to update these engines back in 2021 for improved fuel usage and easier maintenance. The cost, too, jumped from $8 billion to about $9 billion.
Costs to replace the radars of the B-52s to provide greater range and resistance to electronic warfare countermeasures also saw an increase, per the GAO.
The upgrades are critical for the Air Force to follow its plan of keeping B-52s active into the 2050s, a plan that would see the plane fly for a century.
Last year, the B-52 bomber successfully conducted a first-of-its-kind test of the All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, a hypersonic missile, in the Western Pacific. The missile is a multi-stage, boost-glided weapon with a hypersonic glide body that can maneuver at high speeds. Such weapons are difficult to intercept, and the US military and its rivals have heavily prioritized the development of hypersonic weapons in recent years.
While the missile received mixed results throughout testing, leaving its future in the Air Force's arsenal unclear, it marked an interesting moment for the B-52, which continues to be important for long-range strategic missions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Atlantic
4 hours ago
- Atlantic
The Pull—And the Risks—Of Intensive Parenting
This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. In 2024, Russell Shaw made the case for the Lighthouse Parent. 'A Lighthouse Parent stands as a steady, reliable guide,' Shaw writes, 'providing safety and clarity without controlling every aspect of their child's journey.' The term, used by the pediatrician Kenneth Ginsburg and others, is a useful rejoinder to the strong pull of intensive parenting. Parents' first instinct is often to give a solution, to get involved, to fix it. It's a natural impulse—'we're biologically wired to prevent our children's suffering, and it can be excruciating to watch them struggle,' Shaw writes. But that mindset is both exhausting for adults and damaging for kids. Instead, try to think of yourself as a lighthouse: ready to illuminate the way when your kid needs you, ready to stand back when they don't. On Parenting The Gravitational Pull of Supervising Kids All the Time By Stephanie H. Murray When so many people think hovering is what good parents do, how do you stop? Read the article. The Isolation of Intensive Parenting By Stephanie H. Murray You can micromanage your kid's life or ask for community help with child care—but you can't have both. Read the article. Lighthouse Parents Have More Confident Kids By Russell Shaw Sometimes, the best thing a parent can do is nothing at all. Still Curious? What adults lost when kids stopped playing in the street: In many ways, a world built for cars has made life so much harder for grown-ups. How to quit intensive parenting: It's the prevailing American child-rearing model across class lines. But there's a better way, Elliot Haspel argued in 2022. Other Diversions
Indianapolis Star
9 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis World War II soldier's remains returned to family after 1940s recovery mix-up
Family chatter about childhood memories was shared as an escorted vehicle drove to an Indianapolis International Airport gate. Military and public safety officials were preparing for the landing of an American Airlines flight, while the family of late U.S. Army Pvt. LeRoy B. Miller Jr., talked about the lives he couldn't watch grow up. The 31-year-old World War II soldier was reported missing in action in Germany in 1944. On Aug. 15, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency brought Miller's remains home. "The information they gave us explained he died from an explosion," his great-niece, Avila Moore, told IndyStar. "We didn't know what happened back then. Was he captured? Was he tortured? Now we know." The agency is a U.S. Department of Defence branch tasked with providing the fullest possible accounting of missing personnel from past U.S. conflicts. This involves searching for, locating, identifying and returning the remains of missing service members to their families. Moore's family had already buried who they thought was Miller back in the 1940s, when his tag was found in a mass grave site overseas, but after extensive DNA analysis and research, the family finally has the right soldier, and an extraction will need to be made for the original buried remains. "It's just hard to believe that it could happen," Miller's nephew, Lance Hamilton, told IndyStar. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced U.S. Army Pvt. LeRoy B. Miller Jr., 31, was accounted for on Aug. 13, 2024, after his death during World War II. Miller was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division in November 1944. His battalion captured the town of Kommerscheidt, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest. A series of heavy German counterattacks eventually forced his battalion to withdraw. Miller was reported killed in action on Nov. 8, 1944, while fighting enemy forces at Kommerscheidt. His remains could not be recovered after the attack, according to the agency. Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. During that effort, a recovery team found a mass grave at Kommerscheidt that contained the remains of several American and German soldiers on Sept. 11, 1947. "Recovery effort was heroic in that it was very difficult to do because the locals didn't really want to help," Hamilton said. "They wanted to bury everybody and just let it go, but with pressing investigations, they're bringing everybody home. So they got his bones, and preserved them to a point where they could find out who he was." The exhumation team found Miller's identification tag on one set of remains. The remains were sent to the United States Military Cemetery in Neuville, Belgium, for processing. Based on the tag, officials identified the remains as Miller's and transferred them to his family for final burial in America. But 73 years later, in 2017, an agency historian analyzed documentation regarding three sets of unidentified remains while studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area. Scientists considered the possibility that Miller's remains may have been commingled in the grave or misprocessed and misidentified in the 1940s. At the time, Miller was identified based on the presence of his identification tags, but an updated investigation determined that the original identification was made in error. So whoever Miller's family buried was not related to them. "I've always had kind of a close relationship with him, which may sound a bit strange," Hamilton, who has never met the soldier, said. "My grandmother always talked so fondly of him. He was a very accomplished musician who loved piano and composing." Hamilton said he's always carried Miller's accomplishments with him. He said Miller will always be remembered for his creativity. His family still has some of his records. Miller was one of the youngest composers to have his music played by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. "He just wanted to create music," Hamilton said. "That's all he ever really wanted to do, but he felt that he had to go to war. It wasn't a choice. He had to do it." He was a classical pianist, and Moore said they're going to be playing some of his music at his memorial. "We live in the home he was raised in, and I found some music in a piano bench," Moore said. Hamilton said identifying Miller's remains has been a long process, and he was skeptical of the findings at first. The family didn't believe anything like this could happen, and they didn't believe the remains that matched up with their DNA was Miller's. "But, out of our skepticism, we kept slowly proceeding to find the truth, and here we are," Hamilton said. An honorable transfer happened with his remains arriving at the Indianapolis International Airport aboard an American Airlines flight on Aug. 15, 2025. The ceremony included military honors, the family being escorted, and the remains being transported to Flanner Funeral Home. A graveside service with full military honors is scheduled for Aug. 22 at Crown Hill Cemetery.
Newsweek
10 hours ago
- Newsweek
Map Shows States With the Most, Least Homeschooled Students
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Homeschooling remains a steady presence in American education, with federal data revealing where it is thriving, where it is waning, and the factors driving families to keep children out of traditional classrooms. According to analysis by John's Hopkins Institute of Education of Census Bureau statistics, 5.92 percent of school-aged children in the U.S. were homeschooled during the 2023-2024 school year. That compares with 9.92 percent enrolled in private schools and 84.16 percent attending public schools. These figures remain largely consistent with those from the 2022–2023 school year, with homeschooling seeing a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points. The states with the highest shares of homeschooled students were Alaska, where 16.15 percent of students were reported as homeschooled, followed by Tennessee at 10.75 percent and Montana at 9.03 percent. The states with the lowest shares were Connecticut (3.01 percent), Washington, D.C. (3.04 percent), and Massachusetts (3.39 percent). In terms of year-over-year change, Alaska again stood out, seeing the largest increase in homeschool enrollment, rising 3.6 percentage points from the prior year. Rhode Island followed with a 2.5-point increase, while Tennessee's homeschool share rose by 1.7 points. The largest declines were seen in Washington, D.C., which dropped 5.5 percentage points, followed by Hawaii (down 1.7 points) and Maryland (down 1.3 points). The 2022–2023 school year had similar leaders and laggards. Alaska then reported 12.56 percent of students as homeschooled, followed by Tennessee (9.02 percent) and West Virginia (8.89 percent). States with the lowest homeschooling shares included Rhode Island (2.86 percent), Massachusetts (3.14 percent), and New York (3.23 percent). The Rise of Homeschooling While state-level trends show the scope and scale of homeschooling across the country, other data also sheds light on why families opt out of traditional school settings. According to findings from the Pew Research Center, based on National Center for Education Statistics data for the 2022–2023 academic year, parents cited a variety of motivations. The most common concern was the school environment—including safety, drug exposure, or negative peer pressure—which 83 percent of parents named as a factor. Dissatisfaction with academic instruction at schools was cited by 72 percent. Melissa Jenkins, founder of Little Shoes Academy, said many parents' decisions can be traced back to the pandemic. "Initially parents chose to homeschool out of necessity from COVID-19," which she said marked the beginning of "a major cultural shift." "Families that chose to homeschool discovered high levels of success," she told Newsweek. "Families have seen that tailoring instruction to their child's pace and learning style fosters stronger engagement and achievement. Many are reluctant to return to a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. The public school setting has felt more restrictive as the years go by." Some parents also turned to homeschooling for health or special needs reasons. About 21 percent cited unmet special education needs in schools, and 15 percent said their child had a long-term physical or mental health condition. Jenkins, who homeschooled her own twin daughters with disabilities, said: "I found the classroom setting was not where they would find success. Many parents have discovered the same thing. Whether their child is advanced or needs extra support, homeschooling offers a level of detailed instruction that cannot be attained in a classroom setting." Cultural and personal values also played a major role: 75 percent of parents said they homeschooled to provide moral instruction, while 72 percent said they wanted to emphasize family life. Religious instruction was another key factor, mentioned by 53 percent. Rebecca Mannis, a New York-based learning specialist and founder of The Ivy Prep Learning Center, told Newsweek the flexibility found during COVID has fueled homeschooling, allowing families to take a more active role in their children's education and integrate learning through travel or varied living situations. "Parents saw the gaps and decided they could do better," she said, noting that during the pandemic, many parents observed shortcomings in instruction and turned to consultants to design programs that provided enrichment and accommodated learning differences such as dyslexia and ADHD. Is Homeschooling on the Rise? Looking ahead, Mannis expects homeschooling to keep growing and to become increasingly accessible, with parent networks and technology such as AI supporting personalized learning. "Personalized learning is no longer a luxury—it's becoming the norm," she said, adding that for some families, safety concerns—ranging from virus exposure to bullying and discrimination—are closely tied to educational decisions. "For some families, safety and learning now go hand in hand," she said. Jonathan Becker, an associate professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University and a homeschooling parent, said that while the percentage of homeschool families has risen since the pandemic, the raw numbers remain relatively low. "My observation is that the pandemic added to the existing list of reasons for homeschooling," he told Newsweek. "So, for example, some families might now choose to homeschool over concerns about health issues with school buildings, while others might have discovered that their children thrived by learning at home during the pandemic. Those are newer, pandemic-driven reasons to choose homeschooling." However, Becker does not expect homeschooling percentages to grow significantly from here. "I do not expect to see the percentage of homeschooled students to continue to increase much, if at all, in the coming years. I don't expect the numbers to decline much either," he said, citing how homeschooling can often be resource-intensive and logistically difficult at times. While collective or hybrid homeschooling models might make it easier for working parents, he believes the U.S. may now be "hitting a ceiling" on how many families will choose at-home education for the long term.
