Nuclear-equipped bombers during the cold war

[Zapp_S]

I read somewhere that at some point during the cold war, the USA would have a couple of nuclear-equipped bombers in the air 24/7 in case of a surprise attack from the Soviet Union. Thus, even if all nuclear silos and air bases were destroyed by preemptive Soviet attack, the bombers in the air would be unaffected and could retaliate.

Is that true? How many bombers would be in flight at any one time? And was this strategy used even after emergence of nuclear-armed submarines? Did Soviets also use it?

[Mr.Kobayashi]

They had several operations around this theme, my favourite named one being Operation Chrome Dome. The Soviet Tupolev Tu-95 was similar in its niche to the US B-52 Statofortress and they did like their Fail Deadly systems so no doubt they were flying around at about the same time.

[Notassmartasithought]

So that gives us a basic public route–I bet the real route was a couple of hundred miles, perhaps, from the arctic border of the Soviet Union–from Archangel to the Pacific. It’s best to look at it on a polar projection map, with the North Pole in the center. Or looking down at the North Pole on your globe. But it implies only one “buff” (B-52) flew at a time. And from only one Air Force Base. I can’t believe that’s all “Chrome Dome” entailed. More info, anyone?

Does anyone know at what Defcon DEFCON - Wikipedia level the around-the-clock operations were initiated, and willing to say or imply? For the OP, it wasn’t always, but it wasn’t uncommon, in my memory.

[Mr.Kobayashi]

@Notassmartasithought

So that gives us a basic public route–I bet the real route was a couple of hundred miles, perhaps, from the arctic border of the Soviet Union–from Archangel to the Pacific. It’s best to look at it on a polar projection map, with the North Pole in the center. Or looking down at the North Pole on your globe. But it implies only one “buff” (B-52) flew at a time. And from only one Air Force Base. I can’t believe that’s all “Chrome Dome” entailed. More info, anyone?

Does anyone know at what Defcon DEFCON - Wikipedia level the around-the-clock operations were initiated, and willing to say or imply? For the OP, it wasn’t always, but it wasn’t uncommon, in my memory.

There were safety concerns - justified not long after - about the practice from day one, as this site comments on:

Conducted during September 15-December 15, 1958 by the 45th Air Division (8th Air Division) at Loring (Maine) Air Force Base, “Head Start” kept nuclear-armed B-52 bombers continuously in the air on a route over Canadian and then Danish air space in Greenland (as shown on a map in the film). (Note 3) Refueled in the air at designated locations, the crews would be in radio contact with SAC Headquarters through frequent “no answer required” Foxtrot messages. By contrast, a “no test” Foxtrot message would “commit the crew to combat.”
…
Not mentioned in this film is that “Head Start” was the first exercise using high-yield “sealed-pit” nuclear weapons, which were “war ready,” unlike the previous generation of weapons, which required insertion of the nuclear components. The new weapons had special safety features that minimized risk of accidental nuclear detonation, but Atomic Energy Commissioner John McCone wanted the alert test confined to Loring AFB. If bombers crashed on take-off or landing and the high explosives in the bombs detonated scattering radioactive material, it would happen at only one base instead of several. Perhaps because of safety concerns, President Eisenhower did not give permission for “Head Start” B-52s to carry nuclear weapons until mid-October, after the exercise had gone on for a few weeks. (Note 5)
…
The program would end in disaster when B-52s crashed in Spain (1966) and Greenland (1968), with one bomb nearly lost off the Spanish coast and radioactive debris spilled on both Spanish and Danish territory.

You may be also interested in the history of Operation Looking Glass, which kept a plane in air 24 hours a day - although that was to maintain command over US nuclear capability, not deploy it.

[Airman_Doors_USAF]

SAC had bombers in the air flying deterrence patrols until 1992 at all times, no matter what the DEFCON level was. They never indicated how many planes were in the air at any given time, their routes, or their reporting procedures. The only thing you can be sure of is that there were more than one and they were coming from many different directions at once.

The US has a deterrence concept called the Nuclear Triad: ICBMs, nuclear bombers, and SLBMs from submarines. The idea is that no matter what happens they cannot all be stopped, so first use constitutes national suicide due to the massive, unstoppable retaliatory response.

[Mr.Kobayashi]

Some more info on Operation Chrome Dome routes and numbers:

The B-52s on Chrome Dome missions flew two typical profiles. One stretched south across the Atlantic to a refueling over the Mediterranean Sea. The other was a northern route tracing a big box around Canada with a crucial late air refueling near Alaska.

By early 1961, more than 6,000 airborne alert missions had flown under a variety of code names. The missions were no secret. Power announced them publicly in January 1961 and pledged that some of SAC’s fleet would be airborne at all times. Hence bombers on airborne alert became a staple of deterrence at the peak of the Cold War. At times, 12 armed bombers were aloft at any given moment.

Publicity for the Chrome Dome missions detailed how these B-52s carried nuclear weapons with all the codes and procedures for arming and releasing the bombs. They made quite an impression on Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when SAC surged as many as 75 airborne nuclear flights per day. “About 20 percent of all Strategic Air Command planes, carrying atomic and hydrogen bombs, were kept aloft around the clock,” Khrushchev later wrote with due respect.

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2011/August%202011/0811dome.aspx