Reply #11: I am not an expert on them but here is what I do know [View All]

[acmejack]

They have a configuration for H bombs from the bad old days where they only carried 2, they have a revolving ring magazine for cruise missiles, and they have a rig that will carry a whole shit load of 500 lb bombs. In vietnam one B-52 could carry more 500 bombs than a squadron of B-17s they told us it was like 128 bombs if you counted all the ones they mounted on the wings too.

edited for mispelling, re-edited to add expert
snip>
The bomb bay of the B-52H occupies almost the entire center section of the fuselage and is 28 feet long and 6 feet wide. It is enclosed by double-pane doors. Three interconnected and hydraulically-activated sections on each side can be opened in flight to release the weapons. The B-52H can carry two four-bomb or up to three nine-bomb clips internally. Conventional internal B-52 loads include 27 each of SUU-30H/B (CBU-52, -58 and -71), Mk. 82 500-lb conventional or Snakeye bombs, Mk. 36 500-lb destructor bombs, Mk. 59 or 62 500-lb Quickstrike mines, or M117 750-pound bombs (conical fin, destructor, retarded or air inflatable retard); 18 each of MJU-1B countermeasures sets or M129 leaflet dispensers; 12 each of Mk. 52 2000-pound mines; six each of CBU-87 combined effects munitions or CBU-89 Gator. Alternatively, a clip of 8 Mk. 84 2000-lb bombs, Mk. 41 2000-lb destructors, Mk. 55 2000-lb bottom mines, Mk. 56 2000-lb moored magnetic mines, Mk. 60 2360-lb captive torpedoes (CapTor), Mk. 64 or 65 2000-lb Quickstrike mines, or AGM-86C cruise missiles can be carried inside the bomb bay. A pair of 9-megaton B53 thermonuclear weapons can also be carried inside the bomb bay.

The B-52H had originally been expected to carry four Douglas GAM-87 Skybolt air-to-surface missiles as the main offensive weapon. These were to be carried two each on an inverted Y pylon underneath each wing. The Skybolt was an air-launched ballistic missile that would have carried a W59 nuclear warhead inside a Mk. 7 re-entry vehicle. Development was initiated in the latter half of the 1950s. Decision to proceed with the Skybolt was reached in February of 1960, with initial deployment scheduled to begin in 1964. In June of 1960, the British government ordered 100 Skybolts to be carried by the Avro Vulcan. In December of 1962, President Kennedy cancelled the Skybolt missile for political and economical reasons. The cancellation of the Skybolt project forced the B-52H to rely on a combination of gravity thermonuclear bombs and underwing-mounted AGM-28 Hound Dog missiles, the same combination as carried by the B-52G

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_us/b052-22.html