Haven't seen news like this since the Cold War...
New B-52 Squadron Coming to Minot AFB:
North Dakota's congressional delegation announced Tuesday that the Air Force has informed them Minot Air Force Base will get a second squadron of B-52 bombers and about 1,090 more personnel.
The Air Force announced Tuesday that it plans to keep the nation's total B-52 force at 76 aircraft instead of cutting the fleet to 56 aircraft as it had originally proposed.
Accidently transfer six thermonuclear cruise missiles across the continental United States? Congrats! Here's your new bomber squadron.
Unfortunately, the bombers are coming from Barksdale AFB and not being resurrected from the boneyard, so there won't be any net gain in the actual size of the bomber fleet. B-52s are among the cheapest aircraft in our inventory to fly, so bringing 20+ of the big fellas back from the dead, assigning them to the nuclear mission, and freeing up the rest of the Buff fleet for combat ops seems like it'd be a smart move. Never hurts to have more devastating firepower available in the increasingly important Pacific AoR.
Of course I'm biased. I'm a huge B-52 fan (the bomber, not the awful band).
