Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

1,000 needed for new B-52 squadron at Minot

Pack your bags for Minot Air Force Base. The Air Force is standing up a new B-52H Stratofortress squadron at the North Dakota base, a decision that will require about 1,000 additional airmen assigned to Minot.

The decision comes as part of an Air Force move to put a stronger emphasis on nuclear mission training for B-52H units and criticism that the service had let training for its nuclear bomber fleet fall to unacceptable levels.

North Dakota’s congressional delegation broke news of the Air Force move Tuesday and Air Combat Command confirmed the decision on Wednesday. Just two weeks ago, Air Force leaders would only go as far saying standing up a new squadron was under consideration.

“This is good news for our nation’s military capabilities, the mission at Minot Air Force Base, and the entire Minot community,” the North Dakota delegation said in a joint statement.

To stand up the new squadron, the Air Force will add 10 combat-ready B-52Hs to Minot’s existing fleet of 12 combat-coded BUFFs. The jets are already at Minot, however the Air Force hasn’t kept them combat-ready or manned .

Establishing the squadron would mean boosting the B-52 pilot and navigator pipeline to add about 150 aircrew members and training hundreds of maintainers to work on the 50-year-plus old bombers.

A spokesman for Air Combat Command said details of when the new unit would be stood up still need to be determined.

The new squadron means 76 planes in North Dakota and at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. An additional 17 planes will be maintained for parts but not associated with crews.

The new squadron provides the Air Force five combat B-52H squadrons and one B-52H training squadron. The additional B-52H squadron means each squadron can be aligned with an air expeditionary force rotation.

As part of the squadron’s 20-month AEF training cycle, each squadron would spend several months focused on nuclear missions while the other four squadrons concentrate on conventional attack.

The rotation of nuclear training resembles February recommendations from the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board issued in the wake of the discovery that six nuclear-armed cruise missiles were flown by a B-52H from Minot to Barksdale in August without anyone realizing the missiles were loaded with real warheads.

The subsequent investigation led to the axing of the 5th Bomb Wing commander at Minot, the dismissal of the wing’s maintenance group commander and lesser punishments for dozens of officers and enlisted airmen involved with handling the warheads.

The Defense Science Board said that while the conventional bombing mission assigned to B-52Hs had reduced the focus on nuclear training, it was impossible to free the BUFFs of their conventional mission.

B-52Hs were the bomber of choice for operations over Afghanistan in 2001 and deployed for missions over Iraq in 2003. While B-1B Lancers now fly the bomber sorties over Iraq and Afghanistan, B-52Hs continue to deploy to Andersen Air Force Base on Guam to fly deterrent and training missions for Pacific Air Forces.

The board’s report also found training for nuclear missions was given a low priority for B-52H crews. Interviews conducted by the board’s investigators found that airmen spent a little as 5 percent of their training time on nuclear procedures.

For pilots and navigators, the formal training course for new aviators had no flights dedicated to nuclear missions, the board found. Advanced training for officers taking the Weapons School course was limited to one nuclear mission conducted in a simulator.

Beyond standing up a new squadron, also on the table is the command and control of Air Force nuclear forces — both bombers and ballistic missiles.

After Air Force Strategic Command was disbanded in 1992, the Air Force nuclear attack mission was split between ACC and Air Force Space Command. The division created two separate Air Force chains of command answering to U.S. Strategic Command, Corley said.

Without offering specifics for a new command structure, Corley wondered if the Air Force and U.S. Strategic Command would be better served by a single Air Force chain of command answering to the joint command.

Discuss: The new squadron