I want to talk about the B-52H, because right now it feels like we were handed something incredible and then told half of it doesn’t work.
If you pull up the X-ray view on the B-52H, you can see the AN/ASG-21 fire control radar sitting right there on the tail. It’s modeled. It exists in the game. But when you actually get in the gunner seat, it functions exactly the same as a B-17 tail gun from World War 2. No radar tracking, no lead indicator, nothing. This has already been raised by other players on this very forum — the thread “B-52H, B-66, possibly Tu-95M radar guided turrets unfinished” (B-52H, B-66, possibly Tu-95M radar guided turrets unfinished) lays it out clearly, and it currently sits with 19 likes and no official response.
For those unfamiliar, the AN/ASG-21 was a real Ku-band tail warning and fire control radar built specifically for the B-52H’s M61A1 Vulcan cannon. It used two parabolic antennas that independently scanned the entire rear hemisphere — one would lock onto a target and control the gun mount while the other kept scanning for additional threats. This wasn’t a basic rangefinder. It was a dedicated fire control system. (Source: radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/11.ancient9/karte052.en.html)
And it worked in combat. During Operation Linebacker II in December 1972, B-52 tail gunners used their radar fire control systems to shoot down MiG-21s. One gunner locked a MiG at 4,000 yards on his radar scope and tracked it all the way in — the radar was doing the work, not eyeballing it. (Source: Here's how B-52 Tail Gunners shot down two North Vietnamese MiG-21 Fighters and turned the iconic strategic bomber into a MiG Killer) In game, we don’t even get a lead indicator. We’re doing less than what was possible in 1972.
Even though everyone says it would be unbalenced, there are many reasons it would’nt
The plane spawns at around 5,000m The real B-52H had a service ceiling of 47,000–50,000 feet — that’s roughly 14,300 to 15,240 meters. The U.S. Air Force’s own fact sheet states it is “capable of flying at high subsonic speeds at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet.” (Source: af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104465/b-52h-stratofortress) In a normal Air RB match you simply don’t have time to climb from 5,000m to anywhere near that. This matters because the B-52H was designed to operate at altitudes where interception was genuinely difficult. In game it is forced to fly exactly where enemy fighters are most lethal. The forum thread “B-52H and Tu-95M problem” (B-52H and Tu-95M problem) confirms this frustration is widespread.
Barely anyone even has this plane. It was a Nuclear Thunder event reward as confirmed on the official news page ([Event] Nuclear Thunder! - News - War Thunder). The idea that a working radar turret on this vehicle is going to shake up the meta just doesn’t hold up.
And even if it did — it’s still just one 20mm cannon pointing backwards. The AN/ASG-21 was removed from real B-52s after 1991 precisely because long-range air-to-air missiles had made the tail gun position obsolete — the radar-guided gun simply couldn’t compete with missiles anymore. (Source: radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/11.ancient9/karte052.en.html) If it was already considered obsolete against real jets, it certainly isn’t going to be game-breaking against War Thunder fighters that can fire IR missiles and disengage in seconds.
The thread on unfinished turrets makes this exact point — one user notes the lead indicator “would not break the game since it basically only can shoot straight back.” Another recent suggestion, “Selectable Spawn Altitudes for Bombers” (Selectable Spawn Altitudes for Bombers), also documents how the 4–5km bomber spawn altitude that might have made sense for WW2 prop aircraft completely falls apart at the jet age — and the B-52H is the most extreme case of this in the entire game.
On top of all this, the thread “B-52H is unplayable in regular Air RB” (B-52H is unplayable in regular Air RB — incomplete implementation imo) documents additional issues — structural integrity that feels wrong for an aircraft this size, and flares that barely keep pace with early IR missiles.
The radar mechanic already exists in this game. The AN/ASG-21 is already physically modeled on the aircraft. The system has real documented specifications and a real combat history. This is not a request to build something from scratch — it is a request to finish what was started and represent one of the most iconic bombers in aviation history accurately.
Please finish it, and add the radar and warning systems
-war thunder community
sorces
if you have any questions or complaints, contact me at [email protected]
