Missile security forces airmen at Minot AFB, N.D., got a taste of what they train for—rebuffing an attack on a missile launch facility. The attack, in this case, came from three protesters who decided to vandalize an ICBM site near Garrison, Wyo. It took only minutes for the airmen to arrive and detain the protestors until local law enforcement officials carted them off to jail. The 91st Space Wing commander, Col. Sandy Finan, said that his wing’s ability to respond “at a moment’s notice” ensured that “at no time was the safety and security of the site in question.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…