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
Boeing received a $2.47 billion Air Force contract Nov. 25 for 15 more KC-46s, bringing to 183 the number of Pegasus tankers on contract to all customers, foreign and domestic. The new contract—for Lot 12 of the initially planned KC-46 buy—is to be completed by 2029.
