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+--- Thread: US Preparing to Put Nuclear Bombers Back on 24-Hour Alert (/showthread.php?tid=8819)
US Preparing to Put Nuclear Bombers Back on 24-Hour Alert - CharlesHarris - 23 October 2017
http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2017/10/exclusive-us-preparing-put-nuclear-bombers-back-24-hour-alert/141957/?oref=defense_one_breaking_nl
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. — 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. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/29/world/bush-s-arm-plan-and-for-the-b-52-s-the-alert-is-finally-over.html
That means the long-dormant concrete pads at the ends of this base’s 11,000-foot runway — dubbed the “Christmas tree” for their angular markings — could once again find several B-52s parked on them, laden with nuclear weapons and set to take off at a moment’s notice.
“This is yet one more step in ensuring that we’re prepared,” Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview during his six-day tour of Barksdale and other U.S. 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 we’re prepared going forward.”
Goldfein and other senior defense officials stressed that the alert order had not been given, but that preparations were under way in anticipation that it might come. That decision would be made by Gen. John Hyten, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, or Gen. Lori Robinson, the head of U.S. Northern Command. STRATCOM is in charge of the military’s nuclear forces and NORTHCOM is in charge of defending North America. http://www.northcom.mil/About-USNORTHCOM/
RE: US Preparing to Put Nuclear Bombers Back on 24-Hour Alert - Mortblanc - 23 October 2017
The key to this article is that none of the occurrences have actually happened and none of the people sited have the ability to order any of these actions independently without approval of the Secretary of Defense.
Add to that the fact that the last B52 was made before I was out of elementary school (I have been retired for 6 years now) and is not exactly a match for the present force of Mig and SAM designs and it really has very little punch in the workplace.