Moira Geddes reveals which countries have nuclear weapons and how big their stockpiles are.

TWO B-52 bombers flew 44 hours non-stop from Louisiana to the Northern Territory on a simulated bombing run last month — all to deliver a message to China.

The lumbering, 1950s vintage dinosaurs lifted off from the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, United States, on July 1.

Their mission: to be BAAD.

That’s military speak for yet more military speak: “bomber assurance and deterrence”.

Translated, it means sending a message to Australia and the nations of South East Asia that the United States is willing and capable of assisting its allies.

It was also a demonstration — to China — of the US military’s continued global reach amid soaring tensions in the South China Sea over that nation’s island-base building campaign on disputed territory.

“These flights are one of the many ways the US demonstrates its commitment to a stable and peaceful Indo-Asia Pacific region,” US Navy Admiral Cecil D Haney said in a statement.

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The simulated attack run — which saw the Delamere weapons testing range in the Northern Territory plastered with inert dummy bombs — was initially given a low public profile.

B-52 Airman from Barksdale Air Force Base took part in a minimum interval takeoff exercise showcasing both ground and aircrew abilities

Most attention at the time was directed towards the military exercise Talisman Sabre, a joint US/Australian war game aimed at practising “mid intensity, high end” combat — including special forces, amphibious landings, parachute attacks, sea and air combat and urban occupation.

Royal Australian Navy, U.S. Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy ships in formation off the coast of Australia during... Posted by Talisman Saber on Friday, July 17, 2015

But the B-52 test run has again ignited interest in the role such nuclear-capable super bombers will play in Australian/US defence relations after suggestions they would be based here were denied by Prime Minister Tony Abbott earlier this year.

That suggestion was blamed on US assistant secretary of defence David Shear “misspeaking” when he testified before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 13 that heavy bombers and surveillance aircraft would be deployed to Australia.

“The United States has no plans to rotate B-1 bombers or surveillance aircraft in Australia,” a US Embassy spokesman in Canberra asserted at the time.

“The United States and Australia continue to explore ways to strengthen our alliance and more effectively respond to shared challenges, both regionally and around the world.

“With respect to US force posture initiatives in Australia … we are currently exploring a range of options for future rotations with our Australian counterparts, and the specifics of future force posture cooperation have yet to be finalised.”

At the time, China had expressed “serious concern” at such a move — asserting that the nation would “resolutely uphold its territorial sovereignty”.