Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, commander of 20th Air Force, told House legislators that appropriators who cut a new helicopter from his budget are worsening a bad situation. “These are 1960s, 1970s helicopters,” he told a House Armed Services panel Thursday of his fleet of UH-1s. “They don’t meet DOD requirements for payload, capacity, and range,” and they can’t get where they’re going at the requisite speed, especially if a missile silo was under attack. “Any delay” in replacing the helos that support the nuclear mission “is a real danger” to security forces being able to perform their mission, he said. He also noted that 20th AF needs a new ground vehicle because the Humvee is ill-suited to the mission. It travels on US roads, “has no anti-lock brakes,” and at idle can’t keep passengers warm when a North Dakota winter throws “minus 40 degrees” at the crew, Weinstein said.
NASA Boss: Race to Moon Has National Security Stakes
Sept. 15, 2026
NASA is pushing hard to get astronauts back to the moon by 2028—and the urgency is driven in no small part by the national security implications of doing so before China does, Administrator Jared Isaacman said Sept. 15.
