Wings, air forces & commands · 1946–1992

Strategic Air Command

1946–1992 US Air Force major command.

History

Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a Cold War-era United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command (MAJCOM) responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) components of the United States military's strategic nuclear forces from 1946 to 1992, active for most of the Cold War. SAC was also responsible for strategic reconnaissance aircraft; airborne command posts; and most of the USAF's aerial refueling aircraft.

SAC primarily consisted of the Second Air Force (2AF), Eighth Air Force (8AF) and the Fifteenth Air Force (15AF), while SAC headquarters (HQ SAC) included Directorates for Operations & Plans, Intelligence, Command & Control, Maintenance, Training, Communications, and Personnel. At a lower echelon, SAC headquarters divisions included Aircraft Engineering, Missile Concept, and Strategic Communications. At the height of the Cold War in 1983, SAC controlled a total of 37 different wings. It operated 1,000 Minuteman II and III ICBMs, 48 LGM-25C Titan II ICBMs, 316 B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers, 56 FB-111 Aardvark fighter-bombers. Supporting these, SAC operated 615 KC-135 Stratotanker refuelers, alongside 14 EC-135 'Looking Glass' and several E-4 'Nightwatch' command and control aircraft, the latter of which supported continuity of government. Reconnaissance aircraft included the SR-71 Blackbird, U-2 'Dragon Lady', and RC-135.

In 1992, as part of an overall post-Cold War reorganization of the U.S. Air Force, SAC was disestablished as both a Specified Command and as a MAJCOM. Its personnel and equipment redistributed among the Air Combat Command (ACC), Air Mobility Command (AMC), Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), and Air Education and Training Command (AETC), while SAC's central headquarters complex at Offutt AFB, Nebraska was concurrently transferred to the newly created United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), which was established as a joint Unified Combatant Command to replace SAC's Specified Command role. In 2009, SAC was reactivated and redesignated as the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). AFGSC eventually acquired all USAF bomber aircraft and the ICBM force, inheriting the role of its predecessor.

Text from Wikipedia: Strategic Air Command, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

1946
Strategic Air Command was originally established in the U.S. Army Air Forces on 21 March 1946 upon the redesignation of Continental Air Forces (CAF), the World War II command tasked with the air defense of the continental United States (CONUS).
1946
Radar Bomb Scoring became the preferred method of evaluating bomber crews, with the last of 888 simulated bomb runs scored against a bombing site near San Diego, California during 1946, subsequently increasing to 2,449 bomb runs by 1947.
1948
After a "scathing" 1948 Lindbergh review of SAC operations in the air and at six SAC bases, General Kenney was removed as Commanding General on 15 October 1948 and replaced on 19 October 1948 by 8AF's commander, Lieutenant General Curtis LeMay.
1955
Concern of a bomber gap grew after the 1955 Soviet Aviation Day and the Soviets rejected the "Open Skies" Treaty proposed at the Geneva Summit on 21 July 1955.
1960
On 18 March 1960, SAC intercontinental missiles began alert at Maine's Snark Missile Launch Complex adjacent to Presque Isle AFB. The following month, on 22 April 1960, SAC turned over the last British-based PGM-17 Thor IRBM to the Royal Air Force.
1962
The solid fuel LGM-30A Minuteman I was first deployed in 1962 and the LGM-25C Titan II reached operational service in 1963.
1969
On 18 March 1969, along the South Vietnamese border, SAC first bombed Cambodia (Operation Menu through 26 May 1970 was controlled by Skyspot).
1970
The Notch was shut down as a SAC facility in 1970 when 8th Air Force was relocated to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.
1989
On 1 July 1989, the 1st Combat Evaluation Group reporting directly to SAC headquarters was split with most HQ 1CEVG organizations transferring to SAC HQ (e.g., the Command Instrument Flight Division) and RBS personnel, equipment, and radar stations becoming the 1st Electronic Combat Range Group.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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