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This week in nuclear history - June 24, 1993

On June 24, 1993. Air Force officials authorized destruction of 365 B-52s at AMARC, Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., in compliance with START signed July 31, 1991. U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty on July 31, 1991, to limit each nation’s the number of nuclear weapons systems. 365 B-52s were destroyed at AMARC, Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. Destruction of the bombers began in August 1993. The bombers were stripped of all usable parts, then chopped into five pieces by a 13,000-pound steel blade dropped from a 120-foot tall crane. The “guillotine” sliced four times on each plane, severing the wings and leaving the fuselage in three pieces. The cut-up B-52s remained in place for three months so Russian satellites could confirm that the bombers had been destroyed, after which they were sold for scrap.

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