By Emelie Rutherford
The head of Air Combat Command (ACC) does not foresee resistance to a proposal to maintain more Air Force B-52s than previously intended to support a rotating nuclear-tasked squadron of the bombers.
Gen. John Corley, ACC commander, met yesterday with Air Force leaders about dropping plans to maintain just 56 B-52s and instead keeping 76 aircraft in the current bomber fleet.
The B-52 idea–touted on Capitol Hill earlier this month by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley–is still in the “to-be-determined stage…starting at 10 a.m. this morning with my chief,” Corley told reporters yesterday morning. A spokesman later confirmed the meeting was held.
Corley said “No” when asked if he expects resistance to the B-52 plan, while noting it needs to be vetted by service leaders and shown to support commanders of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) and Pacific Command.
“To restore the trust and confidence and make sure that the Department of Defense restores its focus on the nuclear enterprise, we need to look at having individuals focus, in an air-expeditionary-force rotational basis, on just the nuclear mission,” Corley said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington.
“For me to be able to do that, plus the other conventional-deterrence missions that I have to do with the B-52 for the commander of U.S. STRATCOM [Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton], the total number of aircraft required to do that is probably more like 76 than it is 56,” he said.
Under this setup, the total number of combat-coded B-52s would need to be 44, instead of the previously planned number 32, he added. This proposal, in its current form, calls for creating an additional B-52 squadron and then having one of the bomber squadrons at a time be dedicated to the nuclear mission on a multi-month rotation. The rotational setup would ensure the B-52 enterprise has both nuclear and conventional capabilities, he said.
Corley said having the 76 B-52s “gives me the comfort that I’ve got the appropriate focus on the nuclear enterprise, that I’ve got sufficiency in terms of numbers to do the conventional deterrence, and complement with my B-2s also conventional and nuclear-capable, as well as the B-1s.”
He said B-2 bombers are not being considered for the nuclear mission because there are only 20 B-2s, and partitioning out some of the pilots and aircraft would be “unsupportable.”
The Air Force now has 93 B-52s. It has looked to trim the fleet, as directed by the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, to 56 aircraft to pay for upgrades to remaining B-52s, B-1s and B-2s. Yet Congress has moved to mandate the Air Force to keep at least 76 of the bombers.
Corley said the Air Force’s change of thinking on the B-52s resulted not only from the nuclear-squadron concept, but also because of a recognition of the value of the bombers.
“We’ve found extraordinary value in the persistence, and the long-range, and the payload capacity, in a conventional role of the B-52,” he said, noting his experience with the planes in Afghanistan when he directed the Combined Air Operations Center.
“I found great value in a platform that persisted over a target area, because when there was a necessity for delivery of a precise or an area-weapon in a short time, I could depend on the B-52 to do it. I could get information on and off that platform.”
Also, he said, “We find great deterrent value [with the B-52] in terms of theater-security posture. …In terms of strategic intent and deterrence inside of an AOR, you get great value with it. And by looking at that rotational basis, you need a larger number of airplanes to support a rotational basis over the long run.”
The general acknowledged there will be a cost to maintain a full 76 B-52s and support the manpower for an additional squadron at Minot AFB, N.D. Yet he did not have any cost projections to share yesterday.
The new B-52 plan, Corley acknowledged, was prompted in part by the unauthorized transfer last August of nuclear weapons aboard a B-52 flown from Minot to Barksdale AFB, La.
“We took a look at what is capacity needed, the number of B-52s, to give you the sufficiency to do what it is you think you need to do, [and] some of that was driven in response to the issue of the unauthorized weapons transfer from Minot to Barksdale,” he said.
The Defense Science Board in February recommended shifting control of some Air Force nuclear assets to STRATCOM and rotating operational control of the B-52 fleet to STRATCOM.
Corley said “that debate is ongoing at the present time.”
Moseley told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on March 12 of the 76-B-52 plan, spurring plaudits from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.).
“I’ve long argued that the retirement of our B-52 fleet would create a situation where the Air Force cannot meet the need for long-range strike capability,” Dorgan said after the hearing. “These are the lowest-cost bomber in our arsenal, and they have many decades of life left.” (Defense Daily, March 13, 2008)