The U.S. Air Power has deployed B-52H strategic bombers for operations off the Venezuelan coast, as half of a big scale navy buildup the US has launched in opposition to its southern neighbour. Washington has explicitly laid out a purpose of eradicating the Venezuelan authorities from energy, with the nation standing out as one among a small quantity on the continent remaining exterior the Western Bloc’s sphere of affect, and retaining appreciable oil and mineral reserves. The bombers maintained roughly 80 kilometres from Venezuela’s airspace. Alongside B-52s, which started operations off Venezuela’s coasts on October 15, the Air Power has additionally deployed pairs of B-1B Lancer supersonic strategic bombers for comparable operations, together with with their transponders disabled to conduct simulated strikes.
Though the B-52 is operated in far better numbers than different strategic bombers, the fleet has suffered from appreciable shortcomings. The Audit of B-52 Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Materials Shortages in late 2023 discovered {that a} major challenge affecting the fleet has been the Air Power’s excessive reliance on cannibalising different planes for spare elements, and trade’s incapacity to supply new elements in a well timed method. This has severely diminished availability charges within the bomber fleet. The audit highlighted that numerous corporations have been ending manufacturing of elements for the B-52, thus jeopardising the way forward for plans to maintain the plane in service for 36 extra years. Plans for a lot wanted upgrades to carry the bombers to the B-52J normal have suffered from multi-billion greenback value overruns, and proceed to face mounting delays, fuelling hypothesis that the Air Power will make deep cuts to the bomber program and doubtlessly section the plane out of service completely.
Relating to the AN/APQ-188, officers have cited points from “delays with the show and sensor processor” as “the first trigger” of value overruns, highlighting that “the processor’s fibre optic converter – which supplies communication between processors – didn’t work in testing.” The Authorities Accountability Workplace U.S. congressional watchdog in June 2025 confirmed that alongside main value overruns, main delays meant that the B-52J would solely turn into out there with even a restricted preliminary operational functionality in 2033. “This system famous that there have been program delays partly resulting from funding shortfalls to finish the detailed design, however that it has labored with the contractors and submitted price range requests to assist crucial design overview in August 2025 and preliminary operational functionality in mid-fiscal 12 months 2033,” it noticed, highlighting that delays “are a results of underestimating the extent of funding wanted to finish the detailed design actions.”
