Administration officials celebrate the dismantlement of the final B53 nuclear bomb in the US inventory. Retired in 1997, the Cold War-era bomb, which was about the size of a mini-van and weighed some 10,000 pounds, was carried by B-47, B-52, and B-58 bombers.
Pentagon leaders, eager to move fast and avoid pitfalls that have plagued defense acquisition in the past, are handing authorities and oversight for some of their biggest programs to officers outside the traditional structure. But the Air Force and Space Force four-stars given those responsibilities say they don’t intend their jobs to be a permanent change to the system.
