All Minuteman III launch control centers now have received planned modifications, moving them into the so-called minimum essential emergency communications network. The $250 million project, executed by Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., eliminated Minuteman’s 1962-vintage survivable low frequency communications system. The new system helps ensure the LCCs can “receive Presidential directives throughout the full spectrum of nuclear conflict,” said 1st. Lt. John Gould, network program manager. The new set-up includes connections to the hardened Milstar satellite.
Members of Congress from both parties expressed frustration and dismay over the abrupt and still-unexplained firing last month of Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh from his dual role as head of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.