Iran’s defenses were shattered by stealth bombers and fighter jets—but the real hammer has just arrived. The B-52 Stratofortress, a 74-year-old icon of American airpower, is now flying over Iran and unleashing massive firepower on what remains of the regime’s military network. With command nodes collapsing and missile launches plummeting, the strategy is shifting from precision strikes to relentless bombardment. But the most surprising part isn’t the destruction—it’s why the U.S. chose the B-52 now.
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00:00Iran had already been shattered by the US stealth bombers and fifth-generation fighter jets that
00:05had wrecked most of the country's defenses. Now comes the rise of the B-52 Stratofortress.
00:11Iran just learned to fear this 74-year-old US bomber, as it has unleashed a historically
00:17badass attack on Iran. Tehran already knows the war is lost as the B-52s pulverize everything
00:24in their path. This is genius by the US. It shows us that America is planning for the
00:29long haul to take out Iran's regime forever. If you want to find out more about this genius move,
00:34then stick with us. First, the arrival of the B-52s is the latest major news out of the Iran
00:39conflict.
00:40The big, ugly, fat fellow is now flying with near impunity over Iran, signaling that Tehran
00:46regime's air defenses are shot and they can't do anything to stop the US from using one of its
00:51older, non-stealthy bombers to cause even more damage. Think about it like this. US B-2s kick
00:57the doors in with some help from dozens of American and Israeli fighter jets. Now the B-52s have arrived
01:03and they're already bombing what's left of Iran's military nodes into oblivion. What we're seeing
01:07right now is a transition from surgical efficiency to utter brute force. That might seem strange to
01:13say after the US and Israel unleashed an insane 1,000 strikes against Iran's defenses in the first
01:1924 hours of this new conflict. However, those strikes were indeed surgical. They were preceded by
01:24cyber operations, including jamming and spoofing of Iran's radar networks. Once communications were
01:30disrupted, the first wave of US and Israeli strikes came in. Air defenses were shattered. Naval and
01:36aerial assets were destroyed. Decapitation strikes focused on Iran's leaders, up to and including
01:41the now dead Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, were carried out. Those first 24 hours represented a
01:46massive firestorm that was more precise than anything that Iran saw coming. But what Iran never expected
01:51was that the US was simply laying the table for the arrival of something much bigger. With surgery
01:56completed, the US is delivering sledgehammer shots to the wounds, and Iran can do nothing about it.
02:03Now the B-52s have arrived, and in just a minute we're going to tell you precisely what they're doing
02:07in Iran. Before we do, let's take a quick look at just how much power the newest arrivals to the
02:12Iranian theater bring to the table. The B-52 differs from the B-2 that we've already seen conduct 30
02:17-hour
02:17plus bombing runs over Iran, because the B-52 is a non-stealth bomber. In other words, it can't sneak
02:23past enemy radars and air defenses like its much newer and far more expensive cousin. But what the
02:29B-52 can do very well is help a country that has achieved air superiority to utterly annihilate
02:34targets on the ground. The bomber has a payload capacity of around 70,000 pounds, and it makes
02:40full use of that capacity to load up on precision-guided munitions that the US can use to shatter the
02:45remnants of Iran's defenses and military nodes. Max Afterburner explains more in his examination
02:51of the arrival of B-52s in Iran. He says,
02:54That is a heavy hitter. I mean, 70 JDAMs can be carried in the B-52. The number of JDAMs
02:59alone
02:59tells you everything you need to know about how much firepower the B-52 can bring to the table.
03:04These guided air-to-surface weapons come in three flavors, 500 pound, 1,000 pound, and 2,000 pound.
03:11That 70 JDAMs are assuming that Afterburner believes the B-52s sent into Iran,
03:15would likely be carrying the 1,000 pound variety. Though, as Afterburner also reveals,
03:20this may not be the best choice. Even though air superiority is established,
03:23you could have a one-off surface-to-air missile system that lights up and could fire at a B
03:27-52,
03:28he explains about the current situation in Iran. So, Iran's air defenses are wrecked,
03:32but not totally gone, as we'll explain later in the video.
03:35The possibility of these one-off strikes likely means that America's B-52s are flying in loaded
03:40with JASIMs, or Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile. These subsonic missiles,
03:45which can travel between 230 and 575 miles, depending on the variant, allow America's B-52s
03:51to take off and launch at targets from a distance, with the bombers staying well out of range of
03:56whatever meagre air defenses Iran has left. This consideration brings us back to what we
04:00mentioned earlier about what the B-52s are doing in Iran. US B-2s conducted the stealthy and surgical
04:06strikes, creating an environment in which the B-52s could operate in relative safety.
04:10Now that the B-52s have arrived, they are beating down on everything that Iran has left.
04:15And right now, Afterburner says, the primary focus of the older US bombers is the command
04:20and control, or C-2 nodes, that what's left of Iran's military relies on to coordinate its defense.
04:25Coordination on Iran's part is likely falling apart by the minute, Afterburner explains as he
04:30discusses what America's B-52s are targeting. Their launchers get isolated once one of those command
04:35nodes are taken down, their reloads are incredibly slow, with their production facilities being hit
04:39as well, and now their rebuild times are basically non-existent. In other words, the B-52s are going
04:44to destroy the very nodes that allow Iran to wave the one big stick that it has in America's face,
04:50ballistic missiles. We'll come back to what's happening on the Iranian missile front in just a
04:54second. First, the Warzone, or TWZ, agrees with Afterburner that America's B-52s are wreaking havoc
05:00on Iran's C-2 nodes. It carries comments from Air Force General Dan Kane, who says that Iran's
05:06C-2 structures are in a bad way, and that part of the reason is the switch from precision to
05:11power.
05:12CENTCOM is now shifting in day four already from large, deliberate strike packages using
05:16standoff munitions at range outside an enemy's ability to shoot at us, now into stand-in precision
05:21strikes overhead Iran, Kane says. So maybe it's more accurate to say precision and power is the new
05:26phase. Regardless, Iran is feeling the pain of the arrival of the B-52, as the results are already
05:32immense. We can see that in the strike numbers alone. After the initial 24-hour spate of 1,000
05:38strikes, the US, along with Israel, has doubled its strike load. The first 72 hours of the conflict
05:43have seen the two allies combine to shatter 2,000 targets inside Iran. B-52s will have played a big
05:49part in this escalation, as they fire standoff munitions at targets that are no longer properly
05:54guarded by an Iranian air defense network that was far weaker than it should have been from the
05:58start. PBS News reports that Iran's health ministry claims that 920 people have been killed
06:03as of March 4, though it's unclear if these are civilians or military personnel. Other estimates,
06:09such as those shared by the Jerusalem Post, claim that more than 1,000 members of Iran's
06:13Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps died within the first wave of strikes, so we can safely assume
06:18that even more have been eliminated now that America's B-52s have entered the fray. This
06:23is a destructive force. However, perhaps the biggest impact made by the arrival of America's
06:28bombers came on the defensive front. We told you earlier that the US B-52s seem to be mostly
06:33targeting Iran's C-2 nodes. In a ground war, these nodes would be key to coordinating soldiers
06:38and logistics. This isn't a ground war, and as we mentioned earlier, Iran's biggest stick
06:43in this fight is its stockpile of ballistic missiles. Iran Watch says that CENTCOM, which
06:49is US Central Command, estimated this stockpile to be over 3,000 missiles back in 2022. Iran
06:55has likely burned through a good chunk of that stockpile with its attacks against Israel and
06:59the US military bases, both before and during this current conflict. As of the beginning
07:03of the war, the Israel Defense Forces estimated that Iran had about 2,500 missiles. Either way,
07:09it's a lot. And thanks to America's B-52s, Iran isn't getting the most out of these stockpiles.
07:14Taking out C-2 nodes means that Iran can't coordinate its missile launches. When you combine
07:19that with other strikes that are focused on Iran's missile launch sites, you get the crippling of the
07:23one piece of power that Iran can project. And we're seeing that in the numbers. In a March 4th
07:28piece, CNN reported on more comments made by Kane, and they revealed that Iran's ballistic missiles
07:33are slowly being taken out of the picture. As of this morning, US Central Command is making steady
07:38progress. Iran's theater ballistic missile shots are down 86% from the first day of fighting,
07:44Kane said during a brief statement delivered at the Pentagon. He added that there's been a
07:4723% decrease just in the last 24 hours. And as a nice little bonus, Iran's one-way attack drones
07:54are shot down 73%. What we're seeing here is the slow whittling down of Iran's entire military strategy,
08:00and the B-52s that have arrived in the country are playing a key role. But you may remember that
08:04we
08:04told you earlier in the video that sending in the B-52s was a genius move by the US.
08:09This destruction of Iran's offensive capacity isn't the reason why, though it certainly helps.
08:13There's another reason. Before we go deeper into that, if this is the kind of insight that you want
08:17more of, make sure you're subscribed to the military show. We break it down like this every single week.
08:23So what makes the arrival of the B-52s such a genius move by the US?
08:27US President Donald Trump gave us a little hint on March 2nd, when he indicated that the Iran
08:32war could stretch on far longer than some might anticipate. The US has
08:36projected 4-5 weeks for the conflict, though Trump added that the US military has the
08:41capability to go far longer than that. In other words, the US is already assuming
08:46that it's going to be a multi-week conflict, and remember, we're still in week 1.
08:50Plus, the US has to gear up for the possibility that the war could extend even longer, which means
08:55one very important thing. The US has to focus on keeping costs down while battering Iran with as
09:00much firepower as it can muster. And it's here that the genius of using the B-52s, instead of
09:05continuing to use the newer and stealthier B-2s, comes into play. As tempting as it is to think of
09:10the US military as an overwhelming behemoth that has an infinite bankroll, the country still wants
09:15to ensure that it's not blowing money where it doesn't need to. And one of the ways the US could
09:19have found itself pouring money down the drain in the extended conflict that it anticipates the Iran
09:23war becoming is by continuing to use the B-2 for bombing runs. 1945 sums it up when explaining why
09:30the B-52s have entered the picture, stating, capable of carrying large volumes of precision
09:35guided munitions, the B-52 has a long loiter time and costs less per hour to operate than the B
09:40-2.
09:40Basically, the B-52 is ideal for sustained bombardment once the skies are permissive.
09:45And permissive is precisely what Iran's skies are right now.
09:49On the cost front, WION explains that the B-2 costs about twice as much as the B-52,
09:54simply to get into the air. The combination of the B-2's stealth coatings and heavy maintenance
09:59means that the more modern bomber is best suited to the shock and awe approach of the initial
10:03surgical strikes that we've seen in Iran, after which it withdraws and allows other bombers to enter
10:07the fray. There is also the very important direct cost factor to consider. A single B-2 costs the US
10:13about $2 billion to build. So if one happens to be taken out or malfunction in the skies over Iran,
10:19that's a pretty big hole created in whatever budget the US has in mind for its Iran war.
10:23Contrast this to the B-52. The US has been overhauling its B-52 bombers,
10:28having spent $15 billion by 2021 as part of a $48.6 billion program intended to keep these aging
10:35aircraft in the air until 2060. But right now, the US has 76 B-52s in service. So even with
10:42that overhaul,
10:42it's looking at around $640 million per unit, plus the cost of building the bomber over 70 years ago,
10:49which IG.Space says amounted to about $1.14 billion when adjusted for inflation.
10:54So what you get here is less risk. The B-52 going down is still an expensive loss,
10:59but it's nowhere near as expensive as losing the far more costly and advanced B-2.
11:03Then there are the running costs we mentioned earlier. According to the national interest,
11:07a B-52 bomber costs about $200,000 per flight hour. As we mentioned, the B-2s the US sent
11:13into
11:13Iran during the surgical part of its strike strategy were in the air for well over 30 hours.
11:18That's an expenditure of over $6 million right now. The B-52, on the other hand, costs about $70,000
11:23to fly per hour. Even when adjusting for inflation, this is right around half of what the B-2 costs,
11:29just as WION said. From a pure cost perspective, the switch to B-52 bombers is a genius move.
11:34The US gets to continue unloading enormous amounts of firepower on Iran using some of
11:39the most advanced weapons, and it does it with a bomber that places a significantly smaller
11:43financial burden on America's defense budget. If a sustained campaign, even a 4-5 week one,
11:49is what the Trump administration is anticipating, this switch was vital to ensure that the campaign
11:53could continue. All of this brings us to the situation as it stands right now. Iran isn't in a
11:59good place. We've covered bits and pieces of that already, particularly on the ballistic missile
12:03front and the state of Iran's air defenses. But it's worth digging into the latter problem a little
12:08more. Their integrated air defense system is nowhere near as advanced as Western nations,
12:12after Berner says of what Iran had even before the bombs started flying. And as we've seen,
12:17Chinese surface-to-air missiles and radars, Russians surface-to-air missiles and radars being
12:21completely decimated by these B-52s and other bombers. Iran was on the losing end of the air defense
12:26game before the war even started. Army Technology explains more in a March 3 article, where it
12:32discusses how the air defenses that Iran has aren't even necessarily the Chinese and Russian units
12:36that after-burner highlights. Iran has some of those, sure, but much of its air defense network
12:41is made up of cheap copycats of the Russian S-300 and the Chinese HQ-7, which Iran has reverse
12:47engineered into its own versions that, until now, were untested in combat. Now that they've been tested,
12:52these knockoffs have been found wanting. Plus, reverse engineering without any innovation
12:57means that the systems that Iran built for itself carry the same weaknesses as those that they're
13:01based on. For instance, Iran's S-300 copycats are vulnerable to Israeli weapons such as the
13:06Icebreaker missile, which are designed to take advantage of the electronic warfare vulnerabilities
13:11of the radars used for the S-300 systems. Iran didn't do anything to fix these vulnerabilities
13:15in its versions of the Russian and Chinese systems that it's copied, and it's paying the price now.
13:19Now Iran is in a situation where its weak air defense network is worse than it already was.
13:25Newsweek says that the country has likely started moving air defenses from the east to the west,
13:30as it anticipates more attacks from the western direction. But that's not exactly a power move,
13:34it just means that Iran's east becomes territory that America's B-52s can use to launch their
13:39standoff munitions from the side of the country that Iran leaves unguarded. Tehran and Isfahan may be
13:45a little better guarded than they were following the initial spate of strikes, but it just isn't enough to do
13:49anything notable to stop the US and Israeli strikes. What's most likely, as Afterburner said, is that
13:55Iran will fall back to hoping that it gets lucky with the occasional strike caused by American
13:59complacency. That's not an air defense strategy. It's a gamble that doesn't have anywhere near the
14:04payoff that Iran needs it to have. As for the US, it has total air superiority. That doesn't mean that
14:10it has air supremacy, which is when a country is able to operate with 100% confidence that it will
14:15be
14:15unopposed in an opponent's airspace. But it's as close to achieving that supremacy as it needs to
14:20be to start sending non-stealth bombers into Iran. This is a sign of American confidence that Iran
14:25absolutely did not want to see because it signals that Trump isn't lying when he says he anticipates
14:30this campaign going on for several weeks. A lot more strikes are going to be coming from America's
14:35B-52 fleet, and that's even without mentioning the carrier groups that the US has operating in the
14:39Persian Gulf region, along with the dozens of fighter jets and supporting aircraft that they bring to the
14:43equation. As for what happens next, the scope of the war expands. It's already heading in that
14:49direction inside Iran itself, as Afterburner says that the arrival of B-52s represents a clear shift
14:55toward even greater volume and persistence in the campaign. However, the scope is broadening in
15:00terms of where the US is conducting attacks and what it may be planning next. For instance,
15:04March 4th saw the US torpedo the Iris Dana in international waters off Sri Lanka's southern coast.
15:10That's a long way from the Persian Gulf, and it suggests that the US is expanding the range of its
15:15attacks to cover military assets that Iran has stationed outside of its own territory. There's also
15:20the looming specter of the US sending boots on the ground to Iran. According to Chatham House, that
15:25will be needed if America's goal is indeed to take down Iran's regime. Trump's plan of helping the
15:30Iranian people rise up again and topple the theocracy sounds more like hope than a real strategy.
15:35There are no signs yet of any effective domestic opposition or of defections from the regime,
15:40the think tank claims. And if that's the case, it suggests that the Iranian people don't have
15:45the required confidence in their own abilities to topple the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
15:49and what remains of Iran's senior leadership. So that brings us to an interesting prospect.
15:54Perhaps the arrival of the B-52s, and what looks set to be weeks of sustained strikes,
15:58are setting up for a third phase of the Iran war. First came the surgery, then the sledgehammer.
16:03What follows next might be the overwhelming of the Iranian regime by US soldiers heading onto the
16:09ground. What we know for certain is that Iran's regime has been rocked to its core,
16:13and it may never recover fully. That's bad news for the regime, of course. But it's also terrible
16:18news for Putin, who has been gambling on the strengthening of the relationship between Russia
16:22and Iran to position himself as a global geopolitical player. If the Iranian regime falls,
16:27Putin takes a massive blow, and you can find out why if you check out our video.
16:31And if you enjoyed this video, make sure you are subscribed to The Military Show to catch
16:35all of our coverage of Operation Epic Fury. And thank you for watching.
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