The $7 billion, multi-year program to upgrade the Minuteman III ICBM through guidance and propulsion replacement programs is essentially complete, and the Air Force was recently instructed by Congress to plan on maintaining the nuclear missiles not just to 2020, but through 2030. ICBMs are so important to America’s deterrent posture, however, that the commander of Air Force Global Strike Command says it is already time to think about what comes next. “It’s not too early to begin considering, again, what a next-generation ICBM might look like,” Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, AFGSC commander, said Thursday at AFA’s Global Warfare Symposium in Beverly Hills, Calif. Continue
The Space Force is considering launching up to five satellites to cislunar space as soon as 2029 to help lay the foundation for a future proliferated constellation between Earth and the moon.