Our military is taking some wonderful older technology and bringing it into tomorrow. I personally love the A-10 Warthog - it is perfect for what it does. If people were charged to design it today, the result would be basically the same airplane. Same thing for the SR-71 Blackbird.
Seems that the B-52 is getting some loving these days as well. From Agence France Presse:
Pentagon sends legendary B-52 bomber into action against IS group
The US Air Force has started using its hulking B-52 bombers against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
And some more:
Colonel Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman, said a B-52 was sent Monday to destroy an IS weapons storage facility in the Iraqi town of Qayyarah, about 35 miles (60 kilometers) south of Mosul.
He said use of B-52s would not lead to a greater risk of civilian casualties because the aircraft are only being armed with guided bombs.
"There are memories in the collective unconscious of B-52s, decades ago, doing ... arguably indiscriminate bombing," Warren said.
"Those days are long gone. The B-52 is a precision strike weapons platform and it will conduct the same type of precision strikes that we have seen for the last 20 months."
The B-52s are replacing B-1 bombers that had been operating in the region for the past year.
What's not to love - cheaper to operate, proven technologies and it can loiter at 50,000 feet - well beyond the range of surface to air missles.
More here: B-52 Stratofortress
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