A bipartisan group of Senators—led by Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota—sent a letter Wednesday to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, reminding him that the Nuclear Posture Review set the year 2020 as the earliest the nation should consider giving up its fleet of 500 Minuteman III ICBMs. This is just in case the Rumsfeld Quadrennial Defense Review crowd casts a budget trimming eye in that direction under what the Senate ICBM Coalition calls “the rubric of ‘tailorable deterrence.’ ” The Senators express concern that the Pentagon may be “setting us on a dangerous road to dismantling the nuclear triad.”
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.