B-52 to be in service for over 100 years

[MIflyer]

B-52 in the USAF Museum. It was damaged by a SAM on 9 April 1972, made an emergency landing at Da Nang and after being repaired flew four more missions over NVN in December 1972.

 

[Frog]

I believe Greece and Turkey retired theirs this year. But I'm not sure.

Had Canada replaced its CF-100s and Canadair Sabres with Phantoms instead of Voodoos, Starfighters and Freedom Fighters, I expect we'd never have got the CF-18 Hornets, and instead operated the Phantom well into the 2000s until they were replaced by the likes of the Super Hornet, Typhoon or even Lightning.

View attachment 860405

For Greece, retirement scheduled on early 2026, to be replaced by F-35A Lightning II by 2028, the interim period being covered by Rafale F3-R.

 

[ThomasP]

THK still has 1 squadron equipped with 19 (as of Jan'25) updated F-4E-2020 airframes. They are mainly intended for anti-ship or ground strike with precision guided weapons. They are currently operating with a couple of different targeting pods, one of which is capable of electro-optically identifying ship targets at ranges of over 40 miles and contains a data-link system that allows an aircraft equipped with the pod to send targeting information to control compatible weapons launched by other aircraft. The current block F-4E-2020 weapons capability includes most of the common NATO precision guided bombs, AGM-65 Mavericks, and the 'Popeye' ASM (of which a modified variant is produced in-country under license), along with various other NATO (JDAM, SDGB, etc) and homegrown ordnance. Air-to-Air weapons may be limited to AIM-9 Sidewinder, although integration with domestically produced Bozdogan (Merlin) IR homing or Gokdogan (Peregrin) Active-Radar homing missiles may occur in the future.

Apparently, the THK intends to keep them in service into the early-2030s at least.