The first missile defense interceptor at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., is installed, joining six interceptors already in the ground at Ft. Greeley, Alaska, as the initial units in the Missile Defense Agency’s ground-based system for protection against ballistic missile attack.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…