First B-52H becomes New START compliant ground trainer

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jason McCasland
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  One of Barksdale's B-52H Stratofortress' recently became the first to become no longer subject to inspection in accordance with the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

According to a White House fact sheet on New START, the treaty includes limits on deployed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles and deployed heavy bombers equipped for carrying nuclear armaments. At Barksdale, this affects only the B-52H Stratofortress and the facilities involved in their maintenance.

In short, New START requires a bomber that is set to be used as a ground instructional training aircraft, or GITA, to be rendered inoperable.

"We cut a piece out of the lugs where the vertical fin mounts into the main body of the B-52," said Tech. Sgt. Eric Mabry, "By cutting the lugs we will never be able to mount another fin to the plane."

Though Aircraft 60-016 will never again fly in support of military operations, as a GITA it will be supporting the Air Force mission in another way.

"We have on occasion used the GITA bird to practice upgrades before we install them onto an active Aircraft," said Tim Finch, Air Force Global Strike Command B-52 sustainment analyst. "We can also use it to train maintenance Airmen on a variety of tasks like engine runs, weapons loading, troubleshooting and more. The GITA is an indispensable tool."

"Global Strike worked closely with engineers at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and the 2nd Bomb Wing Treaty office to come up with a plan to keep the GITA on station and still comply with the outlines in the Treaty," said Finch.

With the final process complete, lessons learned from the GITA will be to modify the GITA at Minot Air Force Base N.D., to meet the New START requirements.

"Our GITA is the first B-52H model to be modified so that it is no longer subject to inspection in compliance with the treaty," said Finch. "By doing the job ourselves, we saved money and complied with the New START treaty. The same process will be used at Minot to make their GITA compliant as well."

The GITA transformation extends the service life of this airframe, whose service records indicate it has flown in support of operations including OPERATION DESERT FOX, OPERATION NOBLE ANVILE and supported the continued bomber presence at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam.

Even though this plane will never fly again, its role in protecting the U.S. has not ended. This GITA will continue to train maintainers, and test upgrades or improvements for its sister aircraft well into the future.