The Air Force and Lockheed Martin announced their first test of a new reentry vehicle that is planned to go atop the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile. The operational test launch of an unarmed Mk21A took place late June 17 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. ...
ICBM Modernization and Sustainment
The Senate Armed Service Committee's mark of the 2025 defense policy bill includes 17 programmatic changes or demands for reports or assessments focused on strengthening the nation’s nuclear arsenal, as deterrence becomes a multipolar competition requiring new thinking.
In a world where nuclear weapons continue to proliferate, it’s easy to forget sometimes that our own nuclear readiness is a foundational element of our national security. Indeed, it is every bit as vital to national security today as it was during the Cold War, ...
The House Appropriations Committee’s mark of the 2025 defense bill would strip $324 million from the Air Force's budget request for the Sentinel ICBM. The committee also wants longer tenure for program leaders and an evaluation of making at least some of the force road-mobile.
Airmen and Guardians test launched another Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile on June 6, marking the second ICBM test from Vandenberg Space Force base in three days after a June 4 launch. The unarmed ICBM, equipped with one re-entry vehicle, was launched at 1:46 a.m. ...
The Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. on June 4 at 12:56 a.m., Pacific Time. Another test is scheduled for June 6.
Lawmakers are taking several steps to increase oversight of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program after the Air Force announced earlier this year that it was suffering critical cost and schedule overruns—but there is seemingly little appetite to cancel or curb the program.
No matter what happens with the Nunn-McCurdy review of the Sentinel ICBM program, the nation must have a land-based element of its nuclear triad, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.
While the Pentagon is halfway through its review of the Air Force’s new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program in the wake of “critical” cost and schedule overruns, the service has declared a similar issue for the helicopters meant to provide security and transport across those ...