Operation Chrome Dome

Operation Chrome Dome was a United States Air Force Cold-War era mission from 1960 to 1968 in which B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft armed with thermonuclear weapons remained on continuous airborne alert, flying routes to points on the Soviet Union border.[1]

1964 Operation Chrome Dome Map from Sheppard Air Force Base, TX
1966 overview of Operation Chrome Dome related or derivative flights

Background

During the Cold War, General Thomas S. Power initiated a program whereby B-52s performed airborne alert duty under code names such as Head Start, Chrome Dome, Hard Head, Round Robin,[2] and Operation Giant Lance. Bombers loitered near points outside the Soviet Union to provide rapid first strike or retaliation capability in case of nuclear war.[3][4]

Primary mission

The missions in 1964 involved a B-52D that left Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas and flew across the United States to New England and headed out to the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft refueled over the Atlantic heading north to and around Newfoundland. The bomber changed course and flew northwesterly over Baffin Bay towards Thule Air Base, Greenland. At this point it flew west across Queen Elizabeth Islands of Canada. Continuing to Alaska, it refueled over the Pacific Ocean again heading south-east and returned to Sheppard AFB.[5]

By 1966, three separate missions were being flown - one East over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, another north to Baffin Bay, and a third over Alaska.

Military units

The following military units were involved:

Accidents
B-52 Airborne Nuclear Alert route from Homestead AFB, FL to Italy

The program was involved in the following nuclear-weapons accidents:

See also
  • Fail Safe (1964 film), a film about strategic bomber aircraft that receives an attack order while patrolling the Soviet border.
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017 film), the 8th film in the Star Wars series, in which a character mocks a character with a reflective helmet by calling them "Chrome Dome".

Notes
  1. Accident happened while the aircraft was returning to its home base, having already completed its alert mission.

References
  1. Croddy, Eric; Wirtz, James J. (2005). Weapons of Mass Destruction. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-490-3. The U.S. alert operation, code-named Chrome Dome, was a realistic training missionCS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. "USAF: Lakenheath AFB Libery Wing". Archived from the original on 2014-09-10. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
  3. "SAC AIRBORNE ALERT". National Museum of the United States Air Force. 14 January 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-01-14. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  4. US Nuclear Weapons Deployments Disclosed Archived 2007-12-31 at the Wayback Machine, Nautilus Institute
    History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons: July 1945 to September 1977 Archived 2009-03-26 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Nautilus.org: Chrome Dome Route Map" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
  6. The Goldsboro Broken Arrow, 2011, ISBN 978-1-257-86952-7
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