PARTICIPANTS: Jason Fields, Matthew Gault, David Philipps

North Korea sets off a nuclear bomb and how does the U.S. respond? The Pentagon sends a 65-year-old airplane to buzz Korean airspace. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense if the warplane wasn’t the B-52 bomber. Designed in the aftermath of World War Two, obsolete nearly before the last one rolled off the line in 1961 – the Stratofortress may remain in the air for another 25 years.

In this episode of War College, we look at why the B-52 is still flying and what makes it so hard to replace.

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Further reading:

U.S. flies B-52 over South Korea after North’s nuclear test

These boneyard B-52s can still fly

The Pentagon is taking these B-52s’ nukes away