Adm. Cecil Haney, head of US Strategic Command, on Thursday said he plans to meet with the leadership of the Air Force’s nuclear-capable bomber community at the end of October to discuss the air leg of the US nuclear deterrent. “In particular, when I have these forums, I am very interested in how we are sustaining [a] capability, what are the problems associated with sustaining that capability now and into the future,” Haney told attendees of a strategic nuclear enterprise symposium in Washington, D.C., which was sponsored by Task Force 21 of Minot, N.D., along with AFA and defense companies. Haney said he’s been having these types of stakeholder powwows for each of the communities across the nuclear deterrence enterprise. For example, STRATCOM recently hosted meetings with the Navy’s ballistic missile submarine community and then with the sea service’s ballistic missile force. “It is extremely valuable to meet with the leaders of these communities to fully understand our … challenges,” he said. “We had some very frank discussions on [ways] we could best sustain and modernize today’s platforms and components,” he said of the recent talks.
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.
