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.
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.