light bombers, a fighter squadron flying 25 P-51 Mustangs and three T-6 Texan trainers, plus a small weather detachment. Aircraft atomic weapons modification center The Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft arrived at Kirtland AFB in September 1948, most likely into the hands of the HQ Squadron 3170th Special Weapons Group. The B-36 was a state-of-the-art bomber and was large and heavy, weighing 300,000 pounds. It was limited to a small number of bases. Kirtland, with its 10,000-foot-long and 200-foot-wide runway, was one of those bases, and as such was one of few installations around the country to receive the aircraft. In anticipation of the arrival of the B-36, facilities at Kirtland were improved, including new overlays on the north–south runway. The B-36 was the first intercontinental bomber able to carry any weapon in the U.S. arsenal across distances up to 3,900 miles. Thus, it was the principal means of deterrence from 1948 to the late 1950s. It was flown extensively in later atomic weapons tests at the Marshall Islands and at the Nevada Proving Ground. Yet, in its entire history, the "Peacemaker" never dropped a bomb in combat. Although the six-engine B-36 bomber was one of the newest aircraft in the USAF, it was not initially designed to carry atomic weapons and therefore required modifications in order to be coupled with such weapons. These modifications and weapons marriage occurred at Kirtland under the HQ Squadron 3170th Special Weapons Group. Many other marriages of aircraft and weapons were completed at Kirtland. The XB-47 Stratojet, the first U.S. swept-wing, multi-engine bomber, shortly followed the arrival of the B-36 at Kirtland for modification. According to Kirtland monthly histories, during that period, as new types of aircraft were acquired by the USAF, they were flown to Kirtland to undergo modifications and fly missions related to their incorporation into the special weapons arena. The following summer (June 1949), the assigned organizations of KAFB were again redesignated, by General Order No. 52, HQ, AMC. They were as follows: HQ and HQ Squadron, 2758th Experimental Wing HQ and HQ Squadron, 3170th Special Weapons Group HQ and HQ Squadron, 2930th Maintenance and Supply Group HQ and HQ Squadron, 2797th Medical Group HQ and HQ Squadron, 3078th Air Base Group Air Force Special Weapons Command In response to the explosion of a Soviet atomic bomb in the fall of 1949, and following the U.S.’s new military strategy of deterrence, in