Montana’s two Senators, Sen. Max Baucus (D) and Sen. Jon Tester (D), announced Tuesday that more than $17 million in upgrades eyed for Malmstrom Air Force Base were approved as part of the previous day’s mark-up of the President’s Fiscal 2010 budget proposal by the Senate Appropriations Committee’s military construction and veterans affairs panel. The full committee had not yet voted on the measure. If these improvements are included in the final version of the MILCON appropriations bill, Malmstrom would receive $9.6 million to upgrade a weapons storage area with new explosive storage igloos and maintenance facilities and $7.6 million to create a new armed forces reserve center, according to the Senators’ joint release. “These projects will enhance our ability to conduct our vital mission here at Malmstrom,” stated Col. Michael Fortney, commander of Malmstrom’s 341st Missile Wing, in the release.
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
