Oh I'm sure I'm wrong and there are good reasons... but it's just hard to quantify them exactly. The speed/"B52 is actually structurally designed to take enemy

Oh I'm sure I'm wrong and there are good reasons... but it's just hard to quantify them exactly. The speed/"B52 is actually structurally designed to take enemy fire" points someone mentioned were immensely informative. I'd never, ever thought of those. But it makes sense. The B52 carries a lot of bombs and has the structural design and other attributes for being in a combat zone. Designing a NEW B52 is prohibitive because in reality, in a war with Russia/China, the B52 is non-viable against modern AA. But for carpet bombing Afghanistan, the B52 is perfect.