Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) has cut B-52 flying hours by 10 percent in preparation for sequestration, which could cause a total drop of up to 20 percent in flying hours for the venerable bomber, according to the head of the command.
AFGSC chief Lt. Gen. James Kowalski told reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington the command is already flying 20 percent fewer hours in the B-52 than it did going back to fiscal year 2001, before the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
“We’d be looking at another cut on top of that,” Kowalski said about already reduced flying hours due to sequestration, the $1.2 trillion decade-long cut to defense and non-defense spending slated to start in March (Defense Daily, Feb. 6).
Kowalski said AFGSC has been able to manage flying hour cuts since 2001 because of longer sortie duration bombers are able to fly. Kowalski also said there are no plans to reduce flying hours of the UH-1N helicopter, which he said provides security support. The UH-1N was developed by Bell Helicopter, a division of Textron [TXT].
AFGSC is responsible for developing and providing combat-ready forces for nuclear deterrence and global strike operations. AFGSC was created in September 2009 at Barksdale AFB, La., to centralize nuclear operations after the Air Force was plagued by a series of nuclear mishandling incidents (Defense Daily, Dec. 2, 2009)
The B-2, B-52, UH-1N and the LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBMs are all managed by AFGSC. The B-52 and Minuteman III were developed by Boeing [BA]. Northrop Grumman [NOC] builds the B-2.