The Air Force and Missile Defense Agency on Monday successfully flight tested a ballistic missile defense interceptor from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The launch was to evaluate the performance of the new two-stage version of the Orbital Sciences-built ground based interceptor that is currently operational in a three-stage configuration in silos at Vandenberg and in central Alaska. “Initial indications are that all components performed as designed,” stated MDA in a release. The test was solely to collect data on system performance. There was no target launch or intercept attempt. The test marked the first time that a BMD interceptor was fired from Vandenberg’s Launch Facility 24, which was recently upgraded to support missile defense testing. (Vandenberg release)
The future U.S. bomber force could provide a way for the Pentagon to simultaneously deter conflict with peer adversaries in two geographically disparate theaters, said Mark Gunzinger, the director of future concepts and capability assessments at AFA's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, during a March 21 event. But doing so…