ADVERTISEMENT

Cut Minuteman? Sure, Why Not:

Feb. 6, 2006

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

The QDR report announces, ex nihilo, that the Pentagon has decided to cut the Air Force’s Minuteman III ICBM force by 10 percent. Starting in 2007, it will take the fleet of long-range strategic nuclear weapons down from 500 to only 450 systems. The Pentagon does not justify the move with any analysis, at least none given publicly. All it provides is a claim that it is eliminating the ICBMs as part of an effort “to achieve the characteristics of the future joint force and build on progress to date.”

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

Trending Stories

Hegseth Directs Air Force to Establish New Guard Special Tactics Squadron

Air Force Considering Air-to-Air Role for Bombers amid Fighter Procurement Constraints

AFOSI Seeks Enlisted Airmen to Train as Special Agents

Bigger Than a Cessna, Smaller Than a C-130: Air Force Funds Blended-Wing Body Concept

Related

AFOSI Seeks Enlisted Airmen to Train as Special Agents

Oct. 23, 2026
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is looking for a few good Airmen to swap jobs and become special agents. No, they won’t get the 007 James Bond code—but they could learn to conduct counterintelligence and investigate procurement fraud and major crimes.

DUNE Project Aims to Unite Legacy and Cloud Tools in Air Ops Centers

Oct. 23, 2026
After decades of building isolated, vendor-locked systems to run the Air Operations Centers that serve as the Air Force’s “combat brains,” the program office tasked with creating the next-generation AOC is working to fold those systems into a new cloud-based system.

Pentagon Bets Big on Drone-Killing APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets

Oct. 22, 2026
The Pentagon has concluded a new agreement to buy laser-guidance kits that turn rockets into drone-killing weapons. BAE Systems and the Defense Department announced a framework deal of up to seven years for 25,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits annually for the U.S. military.

NORTHCOM Wraps Radar Test to Boost Arctic Early Warning

Oct. 22, 2026
U.S. Northern Command and multiple research organizations just wrapped up a joint, three-year experiment to test new radar technology that could enable the Northern Warning System to detect incoming threats at longer ranges across Alaska and northern Canada.

Pentagon, Lockheed Agree on 10-Year Framework for Buying F-35s

Oct. 22, 2026
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin on Oct. 22 announced a framework agreement to buy F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for the next 10 years. But the deal, touted by the Pentagon as “landmark” and a first of its kind, depends on Congress granting the military authority to enter into such a…

Michael Wynne, SECAF 21, Dead at 82 

Oct. 22, 2026
Michael Wynne, the 21st Secretary of the Air Force died Oct. 17. He was 82 years old. Wynne was Secretary from 2005 to 2008, a stretch of time when the U.S. military was struggling to quell insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Army was struggling to simultaneously man occupation…