The folks at the Shreveport (La.) Times paid tribute to the Jan. 16-17, 1991, B-52 mission officially named “Senior Surprise” in its Jan. 16 edition. (The Times, very kindly, listed the 1994 Air Force Magazine article on same at the top of its “read more” listing.) Senior Surprise—known by those who flew it as Secret Squirrel—featured seven B-52 bombers, launching from their home base at Barksdale AFB, La., to fly the then-longest combat mission to strike opening targets for Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. The bombers were carrying the newly developed AGM-86C Conventional Launched Cruise Missile for its first combat deployment.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
