Word: sacs
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Citizens everywhere should protest the SAC airborne alert. This is not only an aggressive and dangerous act, but essentially a propaganda and money-getting grab by the Air Force...
...Fifty-percent increase in the Strategic Air Command's ground-alert program and maintenance of a twelve-plane airborne alert (TIME, March 17). SAC base warning systems will be improved, and various satellite-borne detection programs (e.g., Samos, Midas) and command-post communications networks will get a shot...
Tethered & Armed. Through the whole period in the air, the crews are tethered by SAC's worldwide communications system to an airborne commander, who flies out of SAC headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha on twelve-hour shifts. Point of the flying command post is to provide battle direction in case all or one of SAC's surface communications centers are bombed. The airborne commanders are SAC's generals, and the flagship is a converted KC-135 jet tanker loaded with communications equipment and capable of flying, if necessary, for 15 hours without refueling...
Long Stretch. The fuel and spare parts required for operating the twelve planes around the clock for one year run to $65 million-the fuel for one B-52 alone runs to $7,000 per flight. SAC Chief Power has managed to get an additional budget of only $185 million. If he can get the money, Power would like to boost the alert to include at least 25% of his planes, which would cost $750 million a year above the $8 billion budget for all of SAC's operations...
...Power's plans, the alert will continue through the years (estimated until 1965) that the U.S. is building a reliable missile-warning system. Some airmen think that the airborne alert will be a part of SAC life as long as there are any nuclear bombers in the picture (estimated until 1965). Costly as it is, the airborne alert is an economical way of stretching the effectiveness of the strategic bomber as long and as far as possible. Says Lieut. General Walter ("Cam") Sweeney, commander of the Eighth Air Force: "I think we'll never go back...