{"id":2007,"date":"2017-10-24T00:58:53","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T00:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/?p=2007"},"modified":"2017-10-24T00:58:53","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T00:58:53","slug":"the-air-force-hasnt-used-nuclear-alert-pads-since-the-cold-war-now-theyre-being-upgraded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/the-air-force-hasnt-used-nuclear-alert-pads-since-the-cold-war-now-theyre-being-upgraded\/","title":{"rendered":"The Air Force hasn\u2019t used nuclear \u2018alert pads\u2019 since the Cold War. Now they\u2019re being upgraded."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"A B-52 Stratofortress is refueled in-flight April 2, 2014 over the Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Nathan Allen\/ Air Force)<\/span><\/div>\n
The U.S. military\u00a0is building new flightline facilities that will enable the Air Force to position pilots and aircrews directly alongside its nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, but officials deny the move is part of any plan to put\u00a0the warplanes on indefinite alert in response to tensions with\u00a0North Korea.<\/p>\n

The construction at Louisiana\u2019s Barksdale Air Force Base includes building renovations near long-vacant \u201calert pads,\u201d where during the Cold War aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons once sat ready on a continual basis. So-called \u201cstrip alerts\u201d were discontinued in 1991 after the Soviet Union\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n

In an interview\u00a0published Sunday by Defense One<\/a>, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein\u00a0called the construction a step toward ensuring the military is prepared for all possibilities. The service is \u201cnot planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we\u2019re prepared going forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The effort comes as the Pentagon mulls a multibillion-dollar modernization for\u00a0its aging nuclear arsenal, and as it grapples with North Korea\u2019s steady advancements in fielding a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile.<\/p>\n

U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the military\u2019s nuclear weapons from its headquarters in Nebraska, denied that any discussions are underway to place B-52s on alert. A spokesperson said that reports suggesting otherwise were mischaracterized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day we are not prepared is the day something can happen,\u201d said Bekah Clark, a spokeswoman for Strategic Command. \u201cSo are we preparing for the worst? Absolutely. But we were preparing yesterday, and the day the before that, and so on. And we\u2019ll be preparing tomorrow, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Air Force, likewise, downplayed that possibility. The service is neither planning nor preparing to put B-52s on alert, said Capt. Mark Graff, a spokesman. Ongoing efforts to upgrade alert facilities, munition storage areas, dining halls and other infrastructure\u00a0are necessary to \u201cmaintain a baseline of readiness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this routinely as part of our organize, train and equip mission so our forces are ready to respond when called upon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon\u2019s current arrangement for nuclear weapons calls for intercontinental ballistic missile facilities to be kept on alert, along with a number of submarines that carry nuclear missiles at sea. The 2010 New START Treaty signed by the United States and Russia allowed them to keep some heavy bombers, but forbid them from putting them on alert status during peacetime.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A B-52 Stratofortress is refueled in-flight April 2, 2014 over the Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Nathan Allen\/ Air Force) The U.S. military\u00a0is building new flightline facilities that will enable the Air Force to position pilots and aircrews directly alongside its nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, but officials deny the move is part of any plan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13826,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-other","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13826"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2010,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007\/revisions\/2010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}