The Air Force and Boeing have upgraded the bomb bay launchers in six B-52 bombers, allowing the aircraft to carry smart bombs in the weapons bay for the first time. The upgrade is needed as the B-52s eventually transition from the Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missiles to the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range, said Col. Tim Dickinson, USAF’s B-52 program director, in a Boeing release. The upgrade modifies the B-52s existing common strategic rotary launcher to increase the total number of weapons the B-52 can carry. The launchers can carry eight GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions, with future upgrades coming that will allow the launchers to carry standoff missile and Miniature Air Launched Decoys, according to Boeing. (See also: Carlisle Provides JSTARS and JASSM-ER Update.)
After months of debate and sometimes public tension, the Space Force and Intelligence Community are making progress on establishing ways to work together, officials said this week—to the point where one predicted there will soon be “a sharing of data like we've never seen before.”