Members of the Montana Army National Guard, working with airmen from Malmstrom Air Force Base, used a CH-47 helicopter on Aug. 21 to bring four microwave antenna dishes to the peak of Highwood Baldy Mountain, about 40 miles northeast of Great Falls. They will be installed on a 100-foot communications tower already lifted there in pieces. The tower is part of Air Force Space Command’s wide area coverage project that will provide modern land-mobile radio communications to Malmstrom’s 341st Missile Wing and local communities, including law enforcement and first responders. The tower will provide coverage for the entire vast missile field that contains the wing’s 150 Minuteman III ICBMs, one third of the nation’s land-based strategic nuclear deterrent force. “We must be able to talk with each other to protect the mission,” said David Hinds, project manager within Malmstrom’s 341st Communications Squadron. (Malmstrom report by SSgt. Eydie Sakura)
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.