An Air Force Space Command launch team at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Aug. 23 conducted a routine test launch of a Minuteman III ICBM, sending the missile with its unarmed re-entry vehicle to a target near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. In addition to testing the reliability and accuracy of the missile from the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., the Missile Defense Agency took the opportunity to gather data for use in future Ballistic Missile Defense System tests without paying for its own test missile. (Vandenberg report; MDA report)
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
