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.
The U.S. thwarted a drone attack on U.S. forces at Al Asad air base in western Iraq on April 22, marking the first time that American troops have been targeted since February, U.S. officials said. “We can confirm it was an attack on Al Asad,” a defense official told Air & Space…