Contractors at Barksdale AFB, La., are hard at work restoring a retired B-52D at the 8th Air Force Museum. This Stratofortress, with serial number 56-629, flew 400 combat missions during the Vietnam War, surviving a hit by a surface-to-air missile during Operation Linebacker II in 1972. This airframe also served as Boeing’s test prototype for the “big-belly” modification that enabled carriage of as many as 84 general-purpose bombs, compared to 27 with the current B-52 H model. Restoration will include remedial sheet-metal work and a new coat of paint. “With the harsh Louisiana sun and weather, a paint job can only last about five or six years.” said MSgt. Keith Baron, superintendent of museum operations. Since acquiring the B-52 in 1982, the museum has restored the aircraft several times, most recently in 2004, and hopes someday to build a museum facility capable of housing the aircraft indoors. (Barksdale report by SSgt. John Gordinier)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.
