…The B-52—nicknamed the BUFF—was originally intended to drop nuclear gravity bombs on the Soviet Union. That would already have been suicidal by the end of the 1960s given the rapid improvement of surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles, and would be even more so today.
So What Are They Good for? Why is the U.S. Air Force Still Flying Them?
The B-52 has been deployed in virtually every major military conflict the United States has engaged in since the Gulf War. Why?
The B-52 still has two things going for it: it can carry a lot of bombs and missiles . And it can carry them very far—8,800 miles, before even factoring in in-flight refueling. Which you should. The airframe also has a lot of space for upgrades.
So basically, it’s a long-distance bomb and missile truck.
What if the target has air defenses? Then each B-52 can lug up to 20 AGM-86 Air Launched Cruise Missiles (which can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads) across oceans and launch them from hundreds of miles away.
If you need to surge a ton of firepower somewhere halfway across the world from the nearest air base, the capability is there.
But B-52s often haven’t had to use expensive cruise missile—because most of America’s recent opponents, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan or ISIS in Middle East, don’t have the powerful surface-to-air missiles necessary to shoot at a B-52 flying at high altitude.
B-52s loaded with twelve JDAM GPS-guided bombs or 4 to 10 GBU laser-guided bombs can orbit over battle zones, awaiting close air support requests from troops on the ground. Of course a jet fighter can do the same job—but fighters have shorter range, and can’t loiter overhead for nearly as long. When the United States intervened against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, it was B-52s and more modern B-1s flying from the United States lugging precision guided bombs that dropped much of the initial ordinance because the U.S. Air Force did not yet have local airbases from which its fighters could operate from.
Today, B-52s are actively flying missions against ISIS and the Taliban.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-americas-enemies-still-fear-the-b-52-bomber-17899