Divine Strake Delayed: The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s “Divine Strake” test planned for June 2 in Nevada has been postponed, due to a lawsuit filed by the Western Shoshone tribe. According to The (St. George, Utah) Spectrum, the tribe has concern about the spread of radioactivity that might be in the soil already. DTRA Director James Tegnelia confirmed in March that the agency was planning to explode 700 tons of ammonium nitrate at the Nevada Test Site to test the effect on hardened buried targets.
The Air Force in October carried out a homeland defense mission, with jets including F-16 Fighting Falcons, in Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands to show a base there could safeguard the northern regions.