[7] In 1955, a massive reconstruction plan was approved to transform the airfield and station into a Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber base.

The USAF planned to use Bruntingthorpe as an advanced "Reflex" base for forward deployment of the new Boeing B-47 Stratojet medium range nuclear bomber.

SAC wanted to disperse its nuclear bomber force and have about half of its B-47s stationed at forward bases in Western Europe and North Africa.

Because the borders of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact controlled areas were within the range of the B-47, the "Reflex" deployments would base the bombers for 90-day rotations of crews and aircraft.

In addition, a large dispersal area for aircraft parking, an underground refueling pipeline network and also the removal of the wartime crosswind runways.

On 1 September 1959, jurisdiction of Bruntingthorpe was transferred from SAC to the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) and control of the facility was assigned to the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at RAF Alconbury, which had been moved from West Germany to England.

The airfield is now known as Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, and was, for a time the home of the only airworthy Avro Vulcan XH558, until the aircraft left at the start of the 2009 display season and is now based at Doncaster Sheffield Airport.