A crew from Kirtland AFB, N.M., last week moved—in a piecemeal fashion—a B-52 bomber that had been storage on the base for the past seven years to the new site of the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque, where it will go on display later this year. The museum is relocating from its current Albuquerque home to a new, larger site that is expected to open in April under the new name: the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. The B-52, which will now be reassembled, will join other aircraft, missiles, railcars, and nuclear submarines on the 12-acre site. (For more, read Albuquerque’s KOAT TV’s Jan. 11 report.)
It is critical that the Air Force move forward on the replacement for its E-4B “Doomsday” aircraft to keep the capability “viable” into the next decade and beyond, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. told lawmakers May 8.