Air Education and Training Command officials earlier this month merged the training squadrons at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., for missileers and ICBM maintainers. Under the merger, AETC rolled the 392nd Training Squadron, which trained all ICBM missileers, into the 532nd TRS under command-wide streamlining. “The newly merged unit will continue to teach 12 different ICBM and Air Launched Cruise Missile courses,” but with less administrative and support infrastructure, said Col. Michele Edmondson, commander of Vandy’s 381st Training Group, in the base’s July 13 release. “Class structure and teaching requirements will not change,” she stressed. Instead, the new structure will allow ICBM and ALCM trainees “to further capitalize on synergies between the missile maintenance and missile operations career fields, ultimately resulting in more well-rounded maintainers and operators,” added Edmondson. The 392nd TRS stood up in 1994; AETC inactivated the unit on July 2 as part of the merger. (Vandenberg report by SSgt. Erica Picariello)
The Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $398 million contract to design and build a communications satellite prototype with advanced anti-jam and data processing capabilities. The service announced the contract for the Enhanced Protected Tactical SATCOM-Prototype program, or Enhanced PTS-P, May 15, and said the satellite will launch no sooner than…