Toning Up the Nuclear Triad

• Share

(3 of 4)

The U.S. strategic bomber fleet currently consists of about 260 B-52s, the newest of which is more than 20 years old, and some 60 supersonic FB-111s. Despite their age, however, the B-52s have been upgraded through the years with new avionics, weapons launchers and electronic warfare equipment. Several times each month, six-member B-52 crews keep in training by flying exercises that closely approximate what they would do in a retaliatory strike against the Soviet Union. Commanding one recent flight, a 2,000-mile swing over six northwestern states, was Captain Chris Patterson, 32, a second-generation Air Force officer.

About five hours into the flight the pilot went into a steep dive, dropping from an altitude of 30,000 ft. to a mere 400 ft., the B-52's attack position. Traveling at that height at a speed of more than 400 m.p.h., the huge bird bounced and bobbed over the Utah grazing land, its wings shuddering against the turbulence. Below, ranch hands scowled at the intruding roar. After going through the procedure of authenticating its "war message," Patterson pulled a pair of switches at his left hand, activating the nuclear gravity bombs and the nuclear-tipped short-range attack missiles (SRAMs), which would be dropped by parachute in a real attack to allow the jet to reach a safe distance from the explosion.

The attack is computer directed, with the crew knowing nothing about a target other than its geographic coordinates. The first bombing target on this flight, a direct hit as confirmed on a ground radar system, turned out to be a corral in mid-Wyoming. The next was a ranch house 60 miles away.

In June, the Air Force received its initial B-1B bomber, the next generation of nuclear attack craft. Smaller and faster than the B-52, the B- 1B is the first big bomber specifically designed for low-level attack patterns, and it will carry air-launched cruise missiles in addition to nuclear bombs. Its swept-wing silhouette and camouflage-style exterior make it virtually undetectable on Soviet radar. The Air Force is scheduled to assemble over the next three years a fleet of 100 B-1B bombers, at a cost of $20 million each.

+ America's 1,027 ICBMs are scattered in underground silos in nine states in the Midwest, South and West. Each of the silos is connected to one of 100 or so control capsules, the unit where a presidential command to launch the U.S. arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles would actually be executed. At a Minuteman training facility in rural South Dakota, a routine watch was under way one recent stormy day. On duty were Air Force Captain Daniel Campion, 28, and Lieut. Richard Lamb, 25. Their casual conversation was interrupted by the wail of a klaxon, signaling the arrival of an urgent message ordering them to prepare a launch. Checking code numbers, Campion announced, "I have a valid message." Responded Lamb: "I agree." From the same message they learned that the alarm was part of an exercise.