How is Barksdale being used as a “jumping off point for operations in the middle east”? It’s a bomber base with it’s own tanker assets and some A-10’s. The only jumping that would be going on from there would be the deployments of B-52’s the forward base in Diego Garcia. All logistical flights are originating at the major east coast mobility bases (Maguire and Dover).
The weapons were not identified by someone sitting out on the flightline watching bombers land (like I used to do for hours on end). The story came out because of reports made up the chain of command all the way to the president of unaccounted weapons.
Personally if I were sitting in the place I used to watch from and had seen a bomber with ACM’s on board (they’re kinda hard to miss) I would have immediately thought something was up since I know they’re retiring them and that Barksdale aircraft are not normally equipped with them. When the flightline was completely closed down and security swarmed over this unusual aircraft, then I would absolutely know something was doing on.
The issue isn’t the fact that missiles were moved. The problem was they were carrying their warheads when they should not have been and the usual procedures for handling those types of special weapons were not followed. The base recovering the bomber did not have the personnel and security in place awaiting the aircraft to maintain positive control of the weapons. I know Barksdale has ACM ground handling training versions so the weapons troops can maintain proficiency, but everything I’ve read, seen and heard said the actual weapons are not at Barksdale. They were only at Minot. If the need arose for another Desert Storm style 30+ hour mission from Barksdale, they have ALCM-C’s they would use, not ACM’s since there is no conventional warhead option for them. The missiles themselves were being moved to Barksdale for decommissioning, not to be refitted with conventional warheads to be used on some secret strike. The special warheads were to stay at Minot until DOE could transport them to another base for use or decommissioning.
All of the about was put together using my own knowledge, personal experiences and a good dose of common sense untainted by the desire to find conspiracies or hidden agendas around everything in life.
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