All weather nuclear deterrence: B-52 bombers mass launch out of the fog

We have already seen several MITO (Minimum Interval Take Off) procedures of the B-52 Stratofortress bombers from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, or Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.

Here’s another one, showing a mass launch of B-52 departing in the thick fog for a training mission.

B-52 takeoff fog

Bombers, air defense fighters and other key assets must be prepared to operate in marginal weather conditions, hence daily flying activities can’t stop in case of bad weather, that makes training even more realistic.

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About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

2 Comments

  1. This is where that steerable TV (STV) and FLIR camera under the nose of the mighty Buff comes in handy. I don’t know what the timing/spacing was between each jet, but rain or shine, snow or fog, it didn’t matter. However, it’s always nice to see the excess pwr of the -H models rotate nose high on T.O., versus the nose level, or even nose low of the previous models of B-52s. Nothing like hugging ‘ground effect’ to gain as much airspeed as possible, B4 picking up your assigned fan heading on departure.

  2. A big danger for minimum separation takeoff is sucking in another aircraft’s jet exhaust and flaming out during takeoff.

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