Members of the Montana Army National Guard, working with airmen from Malmstrom Air Force Base, used a CH-47 helicopter on Aug. 21 to bring four microwave antenna dishes to the peak of Highwood Baldy Mountain, about 40 miles northeast of Great Falls. They will be installed on a 100-foot communications tower already lifted there in pieces. The tower is part of Air Force Space Command’s wide area coverage project that will provide modern land-mobile radio communications to Malmstrom’s 341st Missile Wing and local communities, including law enforcement and first responders. The tower will provide coverage for the entire vast missile field that contains the wing’s 150 Minuteman III ICBMs, one third of the nation’s land-based strategic nuclear deterrent force. “We must be able to talk with each other to protect the mission,” said David Hinds, project manager within Malmstrom’s 341st Communications Squadron. (Malmstrom report by SSgt. Eydie Sakura)
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
