Minot Air Force Base to activate new B-52 squadron

By Associated Press and staff reports

Posted: Aug 27, 2009 11:23 AM
Updated: Aug 27, 2009 3:13 PM

  Minot Air Force Base is preparing to activate a new B-52 bomber squadron that will send 10 more B-52s to the North Dakota base.

  The new unit will be the fourth B-52 squadron in the Air Force. Minot base already has one squadron and Barksdale Air Force Base has the other two B-52 units. The Air Force has not said whether the planes will be transferred from Barksdale or taken from backup aircraft.

   Air Force officials say adding the new squadron at Minot is part of plans to put a stronger emphasis on nuclear mission training for B-52 units.

   A Minot spokesman said the new squadron will bring about 1,000 more people to the base by the spring of 2011.
  
  Minot was home to a munitions crew that mistakenly loaded nuclear-tipped missiles under the wings of a B-52 two years ago. The bomber was flown to Barksdale, where a bomb crew saw the missiles.

    The Air Force this summer formed a new Global Strike Command at Barksdale to better manage the Air Force's nuclear arsenal. The new command has consolidated control of long-range ballistic missiles and bomb wings that carry nuclear weapons.

Rating: 4.0 (2 votes)
| More
    Bookmark and Share

Not registered? Enter your information. You will be sent a confirmation email.


Please keep your comments relevant. Inflamatory or offensive comments will be removed. Email addresses are NEVER displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

New users will be sent an email to confirm their comments. If you choose to create an account, a subsequent email will be sent with a password to login. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and it will automatically be made a link. Paragraph and line spacing is automatically maintained, so there is no need to use <p> or <br /> tags. All other HTML tags are removed, including <img>.

Featured Videos

Poll Now Found.

Most Popular