A B-52H bomber resurrected from the boneyard is slated for delivery to Barksdale AFB, La., this week in preparation to rejoin the operational fleet, Air Force Global Strike Command boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson said on Thursday. Serial number 61-0007 was held in type 1,000 storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz, and will be the first B-52H regenerated back into the fleet, officials at Tinker AFB, Okla., said in a rel?ea?se earlier this year. “We had an accident with one of our B-52s … [and] we were not going to be able to use that airplane, so we pulled one out of the boneyard,” Wilson said, speaking at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando on Feb. 12. A cockpit oxygen fire caused severe damage to the aircraft, but no serious injuries to personnel, he said. Maintainers at Barksdale will upgrade 0007 to the fleet-wide standards before ferrying the aircraft to Tinker for full-up programmed depot maintenance later this year. The aircraft last underwent PDM in 2004, and will return to operations at Barksdale in summer 2016, according to the release.
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.