Operation Chrome Dome

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Operation Chrome Dome was a United States Air Force Cold-War era mission from 1960 to 1968 in which B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft armed with thermonuclear weapons remained on continuous airborne alert, flying routes to points on the Soviet Union border.

Video Operation Chrome Dome

Background

During the Cold War, General Thomas S. Power initiated a program whereby B-52s performed airborne alert duty under code names such as Head Start, Chrome Dome, Hard Head, Round Robin, and Operation Giant Lance. Bombers loitered near points outside the Soviet Union to provide rapid first strike or retaliation capability in case of nuclear war.

Maps Operation Chrome Dome

Primary mission

The missions in 1964 involved a B-52D that left Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas and flew across the United States to New England and headed out to the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft refueled over the Atlantic heading north to and around Newfoundland. The bomber changed course and flew northwesterly over Baffin Bay towards Thule Air Base, Greenland. At this point it flew west across Queen Elizabeth Islands of Canada. Continuing to Alaska, it refueled over the Pacific Ocean again heading south-east and returned to Sheppard AFB.

By 1966, three separate missions were being flown - one East over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, another north to Baffin Bay, and a third over Alaska.

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Military units

The following military units were involved:

• Strategic Air Command Divisions:
  • 306th Bombardment Wing
  • 494th Bombardment Wing, Sheppard Air Force Base
  • 821st Strategic Aerospace Division
  • 822d Air Division
• Homestead Air Force Base
• Strategic Air Command in the United Kingdom
• 2nd Bomb Wing, 62nd Bomb Squadron Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, LA
• Strategic Air Command 42 Bomb Wing Loring AFB, Limestone, Maine
• 4126/456th bomb wing Beale AFB Marysville California

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Accidents

The program was involved in the following nuclear-weapons accidents:

• 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash
• 1961 Yuba City B-52 crash
• 1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash
• 1966 Palomares B-52 crash
• 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash. The Thule accident signaled the end of the program on January 22, 1968.

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Notes

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References

src: www.washingtonpost.com

External links

• SAC'S Deadly Daily Dozen at Time Magazine

Source of article : Wikipedia