When I first saw this photo I immediately thought “what the hell is thing?” Then Attila Nagy told me about it: it’s a nuclear armed AGM-86B cruise missile. Three of them, in fact, being loaded on a B-52 Stratofortress.
It’s hard to tell because you are looking at the butt of this 1.3-tonne nuclear shark, which is 6.3 metres long and has a wingspan of 3.7 metres.
The image was just taken at the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota during “a large-scale inspection for all base operations”. You will be happy to know that “for the Nuclear Surety Inspection portion, the 91st Missile Wing and the 5th Bomb Wing received a rating of satisfactory. The 91st MW completed the Nuclear Operations Readiness Inspection with an excellent rating.”