Operation Chrome Dome ( Operation Chrome Dome ) is an operation conducted by the US Air Force Strategic Command from June 5, 1961 during the Cold War .
The operation consisted of military patrols in the air of strategic B-52 bombers with thermonuclear weapons on board. Upon departure, bombers were assigned targets on the territory of the USSR , which were supposed to be attacked upon receipt of the corresponding signal. The tasks of the operation included the constant maintenance of the “sufficient” number of airplanes in the air and having the fuel needed to complete the mission. Such tactics made it possible to significantly reduce the time required for delivering a preemptive or retaliatory nuclear strike, and also guaranteed the survival of the “first wave” bombers during an attack at airfields.
On average, bombers flying on a mission were in the air for about 24 hours, with several refueling. The patrol was carried out along two main routes: the southern one, passing through the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean region , where refueling was carried out, after which the planes returned to the base, and the northern one, which ran along the eastern coast of the USA and Canada to the north, then crossed Canada approximately 84- th parallel and continued south along the west coast.
Since the end of 1961, the operation began to carry out tasks codenamed “Hard Head” ( Eng. Hard Head ) for constant visual monitoring of the radar station at the Tula airbase , which served as a key component of the BMEWS missile attack early warning system. The purpose of Hard Head was to obtain an operational assessment of the situation in the event of a communication failure with the station, which made it possible to determine whether such a violation was the result of an attack by the USSR.
The operation lasted for approximately seven years, during which several bombers with nuclear weapons on board crashed. After the crash over Palomares, the operation was significantly reduced and finally curtailed in 1968 , after the crash over the base of Tula .
Content
Incidents and Disasters
During the operation (from June 5, 1961 until the operation was completed in 1968), three catastrophes of strategic bombers of the US Air Force Strategic Command with nuclear weapons on board occurred:
- B-52 crash over Wild Mountain - three out of five crew members died, two thermonuclear bombs transported by plane were found “relatively intact in the middle of the wreckage” and were evacuated from the crash site two days later [1] .
- Plane crash over Palomares - as a result of the crash, 7 people were killed and four thermonuclear bombs were lost. Three of them landed on land and were found immediately, the fourth, which fell into the sea - only after a two-month search. Two bombs that fell near Palomares collapsed, causing radiation contamination of the area [2] .
- The crash over the base of Thule - one crew member died, four thermonuclear bombs were destroyed and caused significant radiation contamination of the area [3] .
See also
- Operation Giant Lance
Notes
- ↑ NARRATIVE SUMMARIES OF ACCIDENTS INVOLVING US NUCLEAR WEAPONS 1950–1980 , p. 24.
- ↑ NARRATIVE SUMMARIES OF ACCIDENTS INVOLVING US NUCLEAR WEAPONS 1950–1980 , p. 29.
- ↑ NARRATIVE SUMMARIES OF ACCIDENTS INVOLVING US NUCLEAR WEAPONS 1950–1980 , p. thirty.
Literature
- Scott Douglas Sagan. The limits of safety: organizations, accidents, and nuclear weapons . - Princeton University Press, 1995 .-- 286 p. - ISBN 9780691021010 . (eng.)
- Colin Bakse. Airlift tanker: history of US airlift and tanker forces . - Turner Publishing, 1995 .-- 160 p. - ISBN 9781563111259 . (eng.)
- Michael H. Maggelet and James C. Oskins. Broken Arrow The Declassified History of US Nuclear Weapons Accidents . - Lulu Enterprises, 2008. - 324 p. - ISBN 9781435703612 . (eng.)
- United States Department of Defense. NARRATIVE SUMMARIES OF ACCIDENTS INVOLVING US NUCLEAR WEAPONS 1950-1980 . - 1981.