Air Force Systems Command successfully conducts its first “cold launch” from an underground silo, a modified Minuteman launch facility at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The cold-launch technique ejects the missile from the silo by gas pressure, and the propellant ignites after it becomes airborne. This technique causes less damage to the silo and reduces the time needed for another launch.
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.
