Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said that the Dec. 10 mission was not a "freedom of navigation" operation and that there was "no intention of flying within 12 nautical miles of any feature," indicating the mission may have strayed off course.
"Indicating the mission may have strayed off course".
You could do a mission plan that was goofy, however it is doubtful you could "stray off course".
The B-52 can take radar inputs from ground-clutter and make inertial navigation references out of it. This doesn't involve GPS or other satellite referencing.
Or, is DOD press right?
Now, if there were crew or mission-planner error, you would then have to decide if both the upper-deck (pilot/pilot/ewo) and lower deck (nav/bomb-nav) were nuclear mission certified. Ditto for the Ops staff. If they were, that opens up a big problem. You then have to go through root and branch that squadron/group/wing and maybe higher, looking for nuclear surety program goofs. THAT is a lot of work.
I would like to say mistakes don't happen at this level but not all that long ago, a B-52 drove into the Pacific because the trim wasn't set correctly on decent. Other time, a bomber crew took nuclear cruise missiles on a flight and...didn't even know it.
A long way away in standards from my beloved Strategic Air Command.
OK, don't get me started about Thule, Palermo, etc.
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