The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber is far more than an iconic glimpse of military aviation dating all the way back to 1952 — in many ways the updated platform remains the premier bomber in the U.S. Arsenal. As the U.S. Air Force clears the way for the forthcoming B-21 Raider, the comparably newer B-2 Spirit and B-1B Lancer are both slated for the scrap heap… with the mighty B-52 expected to remain on the active roster for years to come.

But staying in the fight has always meant changing for the B-52, which first entered operational service in 1955 and has since undergone repeated upgrade and update cycles. As one of the nation’s only two nuclear capable bombers (a distinction it shares only with the B-2 Spirit), the B-52 serves as a significant element of America’s nuclear triad while also fulfilling a variety of other conventional bomber responsibilities.

Now, with eyes toward the future of peer and near-peer warfare, however, the B-52 may need to adopt a new approach to combat operations. The massive aircraft is simply too big, too slow, and lacks the stealth to operate freely in contested airspace… but a new plan the Air Force is developing could make the aged bomber not only useful in the fight once again, it could make the legendary aircraft into the tip of the modern warfare spear.

One of the elements of the B-52H heavy bomber that has lasted since the aircraft’s inception are the pylons used to mount ordnance under the wings. These pylons are capable of wielding 5,000-pound bombs or missiles, which at the time seemed like more than any combat aircraft could ever need. Today, however, the U.S. military has two bombs that exceed that weight limit, one of which — the GBU-43/B MOAB — weighs in at an incredible 20,000 pounds, and the other — the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) — weighs approximately 10,000 pounds more than that.