Gannett News April 03, 2007
BAFB supporters look ahead to new missions
By John Andrew Prime
Local boosters of Barksdale Air Force Base support its current B-52 mission but are planning for the day when new airplanes and new missions come this way.
"I don't know the status of funding efforts this year, but clearly, the Air Force doesn't want them and hasn't for a number of years," said Murray Viser, executive director of Barksdale Forward. The private group of base supporters boosts the facilty and its bombers.
The B-52 has often been the right weapon at the right time. Designed as a nuclear weapons carrier, the bombers have only used conventional weapons.
They saw heavy use in the Vietnam War, with thousands of sorties flown.
The airplanes saw use again in the Persian Gulf War, with seven Barksdale-based bombers leading the first mission of the war, a flight that for years remained the single longest nonstop air combat mission in history.
Shortly after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the bombers went into action again over Afghanistan, and have been in use since the start of the war in Iraq.
The airplanes also are used as a show-of-force weapon. Several B-52s from Barksdale's 96th Bomb Squadron are deployed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, and when they return in coming weeks more airplanes and personnel from the base's 20th Bomb Squadron will replace them.
Send out the B-52s and the world pays attention.
But even though the airplanes continue to handle the widest array of weapons of any bomber in the fleet, they are aging. Of the 744 originally built, just over 90 remain in service.
The General Accountability Office still says the bombers will soldier on until the year 2048, but greater-than-anticipated use in the war on terror could shorten that life. And the unexpected failure of any one of a number of critical components, such as upper wing surfaces, could cause the fleet to be grounded.
But cutting the handful of "attrition reserve" bombers, which Vitter stressed are all at Minot, could have a long-term beneficial effect on the remaining bombers. Eliminating the need to keep the spares flyable would free them for salvage to help maintain the rest of the fleet.
"It makes sense that there are a number of parts and pieces that aren't made any more and have to be fabricated if they cannot be gleaned from retired aircraft," Viser said. "This is another reason why modifications and upgrades to the remaining fleet of B-52s are so critical. Avionics, mission planning equipment, radios and the ability to carry smart weapons in the bomb bay are all areas that are either being addressed or will be in the future. Again, this ensures the B-52 will remain a viable and effective weapons platform now and in the future."
Barksdale has been home to the B-52 nearly 50 years, and it is the weapon most closely identified with the base.
But when Barksdale opened in 1933, the main airplanes here were tiny propellor-driven fighters. Over the years Barksdale has been home to myriad fighters and bombers, including the B-24, B-25, B-26, B-29, B-47 and B-50.
But John Pike, founder of the Washington-based think tank GlobalSecurity.Org, said advances in technology also pose challenges to bases such as Barksdale.
"The challenge is that the next generation of bombers probably won't have pilots on it," he said.
That means that aside from times of actual war, the unmanned airplanes would be in storage and pilots would be practicing in simulators.
"You'd still need a base for them, but if the pilot is not on board the airplane you do not need to fly the airplane for the pilot to maintain proficiency," he said.
In additon, since the unmanned bombers won't really be flown until they're needed, the vast array of maintainers such as Paul would likely not be full-time military, but part time.
"If your vehicle is unmanned, you don't need all those people," he said.
In fact, these advances could someday mean further reductions in the number of bases, he said.
Predictions like those lead boosters such as Viser and Barksdale Forward to buttress support of the B-52 with more and varied missions for Barksdale, to fully use the campus and runway of what they feel is one of the most capable installations in the service, regardless of the type of airplanes based here.
"Any community with an Air Force presence desires new aircraft and missions," Viser said. "Having said that, in all likelihood, there won't be large numbers of the next generation of new bombers built. As a result, the competition for the new aircraft will be fierce."
© Copyright 2007, Gannett Co. Inc.
