Gen. Lance W. Lord, the soon-to-retire Air Force Space Command commander, heaped accolades on the airmen of the 341st Space Wing, Malmstrom AFB, Mont., during a recent visit, remarking that, in 2005, they had achieved a 99.792 percent alert rate—the highest for the wing in the past 10 years. Lord says two things contributed to the record rate: commitment by the airmen and commitment by the nation to modernize the ICBM force. During the past 10 years, he said, the Pentagon has spent more than $8 billion on the missile fleet.
The Air Force has picked Northrop Grumman over L3Harris and Lockheed Martin to develop and build the Stand-in Attack Weapon, meant to swiftly destroy enemy air defense sites and other high-value targets.