"That said the B-52 says big, bad and scary like few other aircraft."
its also one of the few known to "the man in the street" across the world. Send a B1 or B2 and people just think "another aeroplane"
Send a B-52 and the world thinks Dr. Strangelove, Vietnam, Iraq
Symbolic but symbols are what you want when people start playing up thinking they might get away with things