Barksdale Air Force Base (AFB) (IATA: BAD, ICAO: KBAD, FAA LID: BAD) is a United States Air Force base which is located in northwest Louisiana, USA, in Bossier Parish, and is contiguous to Bossier City, Louisiana along the base's western and northwestern edge. Barksdale Air Force Base occupies over 22,000 acres of land east of Bossier City and along the southern edge of Interstate Highway 20.
The host unit at Barksdale is the 2d Bomb Wing (2 BW), the oldest Bomb Wing in the Air Force. It is assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command's (AFGSC) Eighth Air Force (8 AF). The 2 BW is equipped with the B-52H Stratofortress bomber. It provides flexible, responsive, global combat capability, autonomously or in concert with other forces, and trains all Air Force Global Strike Command and Air Force Reserve Command Boeing B-52 Stratofortress crews. More than 15,000 active-duty, Air Force Reserve members and civilians make up Barksdale's workforce. About 44 B-52 Stratofortress aircraft are also assigned to the wing.
Barksdale AFB was established in 1932 as Barksdale Field and is named for World War I aviator and test pilot Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale (1896–1926).