Well, up to the early 90’s there was a tail gunner. The gun was removed 1) given the low probability of intercept (due to the fact B-52 are no longer trying to penetrate Soviet airspace) and 2) the fact most air-to-air missiles are fired outside the effective tail gun range.
Given my knowledge was late-80’s specific, I can relay what we used to have in B-52G aircraft.
- Antennas for various ECM systems. For one, we had a basic ALR-46 radar warning receiver (missing the low bad receiver, as other systems took care of that).
- We also had a doppler radar that simply warned of approaching missiles (in particular, IR guided versions). Radar guided missiles of course “announced themselves” so to speak!
As for ballast, I would assume it was used but keep in mind in the past 30 years new EW systems have surely made use of that space.
But also remember that it is flown in uncontested airspace, with stand-off weapons.
Author – Steve Heckman ( Manufacturing Engineer)
