Air Force Global Strike Command boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson has tasked an Air Force public affairs team to spend one month visiting six AFGSC bases to cover stories and document critical mission areas within the Air Force’s nuclear enterprise, according to a command release. Their mission is to “go where the Air Force’s ‘silent sentinels’ train, work, and live, and capture how they perform their jobs in environments unique to AFGSC, like missile alert facilities, launch control centers, and fight lines where airmen are trained to arm B-52 or B-2s with nuclear and conventional payloads . . . ,” states the release. The team will document “how these airmen stay focused and committed to the mission as they deploy regularly to [missile alert facilities],” states the release. The PA team will visit Vandenberg AFB, Calif.; Malmstrom AFB, Mont.; Minot AFB, N.D.; F. E. Warren AFB, Wyo.; Whiteman AFB, Mo.; and Barksdale AFB, La. The month-long series comes as the Air Force’s nuclear mission is being heavily scrutinized by senior Defense Department and congressional leaders after the Air Force unveiled that nearly half of Malmstrom’s missileers had been implicated in a cheating investigation. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has acknowledged there is a systemic problem in the nuclear enterprise, but maintains she remains confident in the mission itself.
RTX, parent of Raytheon, Collins and Pratt & Whitney, is getting out of the space prime business and focusing on its "strengths" as a maker of space sensors, buses, and components, company COO Chris Calio said during an earnings call.