page_title: Kirtland Air Force Base
section_title: Atmospheric sampling
hierarchical_section_title: Kirtland Air Force Base / History / Cold War / Atmospheric sampling
caption_attribution_description: English: Martin General Dynamics WB-57F 63-13503. Photo taken when aircraft assigned to 6091st Reconnaissance Squadron, Yokota AB, Japan. Aircraft later transferred to NASA, Still in service as NASA 926
context_page_description: Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland. The military and the international airport share the same runways, making ABQ a joint civil-military airport.
  Kirtland AFB is the largest installation in Air Force Global Strike Command and sixth largest in the Air Force. The base occupies 51,558 acres and employs over 23,000 people, including more than 4,200 active duty and 1,000 Guard, plus 3,200 part-time Reserve personnel. In 2000, Kirtland AFB's economic impact on the City of Albuquerque was over $2.7 billion.
  Kirtland is the home of the Air Force Materiel Command's Nuclear Weapons Center. The NWC's responsibilities include acquisition, modernization and sustainment of nuclear system programs for both the Department of Defense and Department of Energy. The NWC is composed of two wings–the 377th Air Base Wing and 498th Nuclear Systems Wing–along with ten groups and 7 squadrons.
context_section_description: On 16 June 1963, also after the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the 1211th Test Squadron was inactivated, and its assets were re-designated as the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, and the unit activated on 1 February 1964. The new designation created no change in unit mission, although the squadron then emerged into the "Age of the F Troop" . The "F" was from the assignment of the RB-57F Canberra to the squadron. According to the official history of the "F Troop 58th Weather Squadron," the RB-57F proved itself to be an aircraft gifted with the capabilities of exceptional payload, high altitude, long-range performance, and extended loiter time, all of which were useful for taking air samples.
  This monitoring activity was directly related to Kennedy's LTBT safeguards: to monitor testing by other nations. An ongoing assignment of the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron was observation for evidence of Soviet Union and Communist Chinese nuclear tests, a direct response to Safeguard D. For example, the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron flew back and forth to Argentina during 1965 for its top secret "Quick Dip" program. Quick Dip involved biweekly flights of two RB-57Fs to El Plumerillo Airport in Mendoza, Argentina, for periods of four to five days. During each period, five to six air samplings were to be taken to estimate the amount of plutonium being produced by the Soviets.
  In 1968 the Air Weather Service's RB-57Fs were redesignated WB-57Fs, and they continued to be used in the atmospheric sampling role, mostly on behalf of the AEC. Some of the aircraft were fitted with probes to scoop up airborne particles in a program of ongoing monitoring of nuclear tests. Most of this activity was centered on the nuclear tests carried out in Communist China, but some of it was used in U.S. air space to monitor air in the aftermath of underground nuclear tests.
  The 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron was the last squadron in the USAF to use the WB-57F; in the spring of 1972, the decision was made to transfer 12 F-Troop aircraft, WB-57Fs and WB-57Cs, to Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona for storage at the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center.  By the summer of 1973 there were rumors of squadron reductions, and inactivation of the squadron was announced officially in March 1974 as a result of the continual downsizing since the 1958 moratorium.
caption: Martin General Dynamics WB-57F 63-13503 used for atmospheric air sampling
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