At another Capitol Hill hearing later on Wednesday, Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, head of US Strategic Command, acknowledged that the 2007 defense budget called for cutting the Minuteman force from 500 to 450, however, he added that the number of warheads would stay the same. That answers some of the mail, but there are lawmakers waiting to hear whether it will be their state that takes the hit.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.