A U.S. Air Force manual has confirmed previous reports that the service’s iconic B-52H bombers are no longer authorized to carry nuclear gravity bombs. The only nuclear weapon these aircraft are presently certified to carry is the AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile, which is set to eventually get replaced by a new stealthy missile under development now under the Long Range Stand Off program, or LSRO.
The U.S. House of Representatives just passed the latest annual defense policy bill, covering the 2020 Fiscal Year, which eliminates the Congressional requirement for the U.S. Air Force to develop a conventionally armed variant of its future nuclear-tipped Long-Range Stand-Off air-launched cruise missile, or LSRO. It is very likely that this decision is linked to the development of a new extreme-range variant of the AGM-158 Joint Air-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM-XR, which will be able to hit targets over 1,000 miles away and is scheduled to be out of testing in 2023.
The General Dynamics AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile was too far ahead of its time, so much so that it was eventually succeeded by the missile it was supposed to replace.
Considering the arsenal we have is extremely costly to maintain not to mention update, expanding it will be fiscally unsustainable in the long run.
