Posted on 10/22/2017 5:25:53 PM PDT by be-baw
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert, a status not seen since the Cold War ended in 1991 according to a report released Sunday by Defense One.
If the order comes, the B-52s will return to a ready-to-fly posture not seen since the Cold War, reported Marcus Weisgerber, global business editor for the industry publication, noting that long-dormant runway areas on certain bases could once again be a home to fully loaded B-52s, ready to fly at a moments notice.
This is yet one more step in ensuring that were prepared, Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview during his six-day tour of Barksdale and other Air Force bases that support the nuclear mission. I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure were prepared going forward.
The officer and other senior defense officials stressed that the alert order had not been given, but that preparations were under way just in case. The decision itself would be made by Gen. John Hyten, commander of Strategic Command, or Gen. Lori Robinson, the head of Northern Command. STRATCOM is in charge of the militarys nuclear forces and NORTHCOM is tasked with defending North America.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Multiple layers of fail safe actions guarantee at a minimum one system will survive to retaliate.
Modern SAMs are going to make it hell for the BUFFs.
AGM-86B/C/Ds and the AGM-158 JASSM have a stand-off range of 1,000 to 1500 NM.
Methods and delivery tactics are classified, but I assure you the B-52 will never reach the radar net much less the operational envelope of a SAM
No they wont...
In Vietnam the B-52 was dropping dumb bombs over the target. Today any nuclear delivery will take place well outside the radar net, much less the operational envelope of any SAM.
Lots of folks on here talking about thinks they simply know nothing about...
If you are going to use stand off weapons then there’s no need for aerial dinosaurs at all. Waste of money.
There were no “Fail Safe” orbits or Airborne alert since the 60s. All the B-52s on alert when we stood down were on the ground at their home bases. Bush 41 took the bombers and MM2 missiles off alert. The MM2 missiles have since been retired and their launchers destroyed. There are still 450 MM3 missiles and the Ohio class missile boats that are still ready. Putting a few bombers back on alert is just a very visible way of saying we mean business.
Also, the Minuteman missiles are all in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. A direct flight from their silos to North Korea might go over eastern Siberia. That would bring a political issue as well that a bomber can easily avoid.
“GHWB may have stopped the Fail Safe orbits and grounded the planes from their forward positioning. He most certainly did that; at a minimum.”
O.K.
When did the B-1’s start/stop carrying the nukes? ACLM’s?
The B-1s have never carried ALCMs. They were mounted a couple of times for testing but stopped for START treaty requirements. They carried bombs and the AGM-69 Short Range Attack Missile. They went solely conventional in the early 2000s I believe.
I was hoping the 450 were still there.
Yes, the route could very well be a problem re: ICBM’s.
God. What a plane! Go BUFF!
LOL!
Ben Garrison is a genius! That expression on the Press face, and his Twitter before him. Love it.
I grew up near Bangor, Maine in the late 50s/early 60s. I can remember we’d all watch those big BUFFs taking off from Dow AFB. I think Dow had something like a 12,000’ runway. When they flew those sorties out of there, especially at night, it was a sight to behold from the end of the runway just off the base.
I can remember that we were at Acadia National Park one weekend and happen to watch em come in off the ocean at tree-top level. I guess they’d go out over the Atlantic and then come back in at tree-top level testing ground air defense radar systems. Seeing a dozen Buffs in formation coming in to our coast a tree-top level throttled up with miles of jet trail behind em...well, it’s one of those impressive things in life that you just never forget.
Looks like I need to watch “By Dawn’s Early Light” again. Came out in 1990. Powers Booth and James Earl Jones and Martin Landau. Awesome movie.
I love that movie. I always think of it when I see the E-4’s flying around town (they are stationed at Offutt AFB which is about 12 miles straight east of my house). It reminds me of the scene at the end where they get rid of crazy Darren McGavin.
The comment about the low flying B-52s reminded me of seeing them flying at low levels near a lake/recreation area we used to go to that was near the town where I went to juco. They flew over so low you could see the pilots in the cockpit. Wow was that impressive. One of the hangers out at Offutt (I go to the airshow out there every year) had a great saying painted on the side: “Global peace through strength”. That is what those planes remind me of. That is what I like to see my tax dollars going towards.
I just watched the first 25 minutes of the movie on youtube. Pretty decent quality.
As a former B-52 crew member who sat alert for three years, I consider it a really stupid movie.
As a cop I find it difficult to watch cop shows/movies without critiquing as well.
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