Air Campaign 46 Chrome Dome 1960-68

Peter e Davies

Publisher:

Osprey Publishing

ISBN Number:

9781472860545

Format:

Paperback

Pages:

96

Illustrations:

Black / White and Colour photographs

£16.99

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Description

In 1960, SAC’s B-52s began a nonstop, eight-year, nuclear-armed patrol. Fully illustrated, this study explains how one of the Cold War’s most challenging operations was conceived and flown.

Operation Chrome Dome was Strategic Air Command’s unprecedented nuclear deterrence operation, a hugely elaborate and costly response to the perceived nuclear missile threat from the Soviet Union.

In this book, Cold War aviation historian Peter E. Davies explains how for eight years, Chrome Dome required 12 B-52 Stratofortresses to maintain a ceaseless airborne alert within striking distance of Soviet targets, orbiting over the Mediterranean and north of Alaska. Each bomber stayed aloft for 24 hours, flying for around 10,000 miles until relieved by another. In each cockpit a top-secret Combat Mission Folder contained details of the routes and procedures for a nuclear attack on a pre-determined Soviet target.

Dramatic and controversial, the years of unrelenting Chrome Dome missions saw several B-52 crashes and losses of nuclear weapons, most famously those in Greenland and off the Spanish coast. Drawing on first-hand information from the personnel who flew and supported these gargantuan efforts, and packed with archive photos, superb new artwork, maps and diagrams, this book offers an authoritative history of how SAC flew its most challenging operation of the Cold War.

Additional information

Weight 0.35 kg
Country Of Origin

United Kingdom