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The Air Force is testing out the B-52 bomber for use in psychological operations

The B-52, one of the Air Force's biggest bomber, has successfully completed trials deploying PDU-5/B leaflet canisters from its external bomb docks.

A B-52 Stratofortress assigned to the 419th Flight Test Squadron with eight PDU-5/B leaflet bombs under the left wing.

The US Air Force has successfully completed two tests of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber in leaflet-drop operations, moving closer to including one of the service's biggest bombers in psychological operations.

Personnel from the 419th Flight Test Squadron performed two sorties with the B-52, dropping eight PDU-5/B leaflet bombs over test ranges in California.

The PDU-5/B is a variant of the CBU, or Cluster Bomb Unit. The Air Force's Information Warfare Battlelab repurposed Rockeye cluster munitions to pack them with leaflets. The weapon's designation is based on its contents, the Air Force said.

The current model of the PDU-5/B can carry about 60,000 leaflets and costs less than $500 each. When released from the aircraft, a fuse detonates the bomb at a certain time to release the leaflets.

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According to The Aviationist, which first spotted the news, PDU-5/Bs were used to drop leaflets over ISIS militants in Syria in 2015. Previously, they were used in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq — in the latter, they were dropped over Baghdad before actual bombing started.

The PDU-5/B can be dropped from helicopters and other aircraft.

US F-15E Strike Eagles deployed them over Syria in 2015, and Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft dropped them over Afghanistan's southern Helmand province in 2012.

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