Editing Strategic Air Command (section)

== Cold War and massive retaliation ==
[[File:Titan2 color silo.jpg|thumb|[[LGM-25C Titan II|Titan II]] missile launching from Site 395-C, a test launch silo at [[Vandenberg AFB]].]]
[[File:SAC logo on B-47.jpg|thumb|Strategic Air Command logo on a B-47 on display at the [[National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force]] in [[Pooler, Georgia]]]]

SAC's first jet strategic bomber was the [[B-47 Stratojet|swept-wing B-47]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Lloyd |first=Alwyn T |year=1988 |title=B-47 Stratojet in detail & scale |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nj8yAQAAIAAJ&q=strategic+air+command |publisher=TAB Books |isbn=9780816850235 |access-date=2013-09-15}}</ref> medium bomber, which first entered service in 1951 and became operational within SAC in 1953.  The B-47 was a component of the October<!--Volume I--> 1953 ''[[New Look (policy)|New Look]]'' strategy, which articulated, in part, that: "''...to minimize the threat<!--...a massive retaliatory capability [for] an effective continental defense system--><ref>Joint Chiefs of Staff summary{{Specify|date=August 2012}} (cited by Schaffel p. 194)</ref>...the major purpose of [[Permanent System radar stations|air defense]] was not to shoot down enemy bombers—it was to allow SAC{{r|Schaffel}}<!--p. 251-->...to get into the air''[--and]'' not be destroyed on the ground''[--to allow]'' [[massive retaliation]]''."<ref>[[House of Commons of Canada]] transcript (quoted by Schaffel, p. 251—speaker not identified). Note: [[Massive retaliation]] was "espoused publicly in January 1954 by Eisenhower's Secretary of State, [[John Foster Dulles]]" (Schaffel p. 194)</ref>

Concern of a [[bomber gap]] grew after the 1955 [[Soviet Aviation Day]] and the Soviets rejected the "[[Treaty on Open Skies|Open Skies]]" Treaty proposed at the [[Geneva Summit (1955)|Geneva Summit]] on 21 July 1955. US bomber strength peaked with "over 2,500 bombers" after production "of over 2,000 B-47s and almost 750 B-52s"<!--Bomber Gap WIKIARTICLE--> (circa 1956, 50% of SAC aircraft & 80% of SAC bombers were B-47s).{{r|Boyne}}{{rp |104}}

In an effort to concurrently enhance its reconnaissance capabilities, SAC also received several [[Martin RB-57D Canberra|RB-57D Canberra]] aircraft<!-- as Weapon System MX-2147 ([[code name]] Bald Eagle)--> [[4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing|in April 1956]], with the aircraft initially based at [[Turner AFB]], Georgia.{{r|Mikesh}} In 1957, these aircraft were forward deployed to [[Rhein-Main Air Base]], West Germany, in order to conduct reconnaissance missions along the borders of the Soviet Union and other [[Warsaw Pact]] nations.  However, an unintended consequence of this deployment was that [[Hawker Hunter]] fighters of the [[Royal Air Force]] stationed in the United Kingdom and in continental Europe often intercepted these classified RB-57 missions as they returned to Rhein-Main AB from over the Baltic.<ref name=Mikesh>{{cite book |last=Mikesh |first=Robert C |year=1995 |title=Martin B-57 Canberra: The Complete Record |publisher=Schiffer Pub Ltd |isbn=0-88740-661-0}}</ref>

Since it was designed as a medium bomber, SAC's [[B-47 Stratojet]] traded speed for range.  Because of this shorter range, and in order to better enable the B-47 fleet to reach its target sets in the Soviet Union, SAC routinely deployed its US-based B-47 wings to overseas forward operating bases in North Africa, Spain and Turkey.  This program, in effect from 1957 to 1966, was known as "Reflex" with [[Sixteenth Air Force]] (16AF), a SAC [[numbered air force]] permanently stationed in Europe, having tactical and administrative control of the forward-deployed aircraft and units.{{r|Baugher}}

Beginning in 1955, SAC also moved a portion of its bomber and aerial refueling aircraft to 24-hour alert status, either on the ground or airborne.  By 1960, fully one third of SAC's bombers and aerial refueling aircraft were on 24-hour alert, with those crews and aircraft not already airborne ready to take off from designated alert sites at their respective bases within fifteen minutes.  Bomber aircraft on ground alert were armed with nuclear weapons while aerial tanker aircraft were sufficiently fueled to provide maximum combat fuel offload to the bombers.<ref>http://www.jeromegoolsby.net/military/sacstats.htmlkept {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref>

Concurrent with this increased alert posture and in order to better hone strategic bombing skillsets, the 1955 [[Fairchild Trophy|SAC Bombing and Navigation Competition]] was characterized by radar bomb scoring (RBS) runs on Amarillo, [[Lowry Bombing and Gunnery Range#Denver Bomb Plot|Denver]], Salt Lake City, Kansas City, San Antonio<ref>{{cite web |title=7th Bombardment Wing Operations, Carswell AFB, 1955–1958 |url=http://www.7bwb-36assn.org/b36genhistpg4.html |publisher=7bwb-36assn.org |access-date=2013-09-15 |archive-date=6 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006083920/http://www.7bwb-36assn.org/b36genhistpg4.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Phoenix;<ref>{{cite news |date=2 May 1955 |title=Fairchild Wing To Get Trophy in Bomb Tests |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19550502&id=XPpXAAAAIBAJ&pg=4206,164978 |format=Google news archive |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |access-date=2013-08-16}}</ref> and the 1957 competition (nicknamed "Operation Longshot")<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%201525.html 1957 | 1525 | Flight Archive]. ''FlightGlobal''. (18 October 1957). Retrieved 2013-09-18.</ref> had three targets: [[Statesboro Bomb Scoring Site|Atlanta]], Kansas City, and St. Louis.<ref>{{cite news |last=Haugland |first=Vern |date=31 October 1957 |title=90 SAC Planes to H-Bomb 3 Target Cities Off Map |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zF9QAAAAIBAJ&pg=7362,5208977&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en |newspaper=The Milwaukee Sentinel |access-date=2013-09-15 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130124201649/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zF9QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_w8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7362,5208977&dq=bomb-scoring&hl=en |url-status=dead }}</ref> This use of RBS with simulated target areas utilizing mobile and fixed bomb scoring sites adjacent to major cities, industrial areas, military installations and dedicated bombing ranges throughout the United States.  This format would continue through successive SAC Bombing and Navigation Competitions through the remainder of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.  Commencing in the late 1950s, in addition to representation from every SAC wing with a bombing and/or air refueling mission, later SAC competitions would also include participating bomber and aerial refueling units from the [[Royal Air Force]]'s [[RAF Bomber Command|Bomber Command]] and (after 30 April 1968) its successor, [[RAF Strike Command]].