The Air Force completed the process of converting each Minuteman ICBM in the fleet to carrying a single warhead and no longer having multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, announced service officials. Removal of the last extra warhead from a Minuteman missile took place on June 16 at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., according to Air Force Global Strike Command’s release. “This was the last Minuteman III in the Air Force to be ‘deMIRVed'” to meet the US nuclear force posture to comply with the New START agreement, said Steve Ray with AFGSC’s missile maintenance division. “This is historic because we’ve had MIRVs in the field for more than 40 years, since 1970, when the first Minuteman III came on alert,” he said. The 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., was the first of the Air Force’s missile wings to begin the deMIRVing process in response to the Pentagon’s 2010 Nuclear Posture Review. (Barksdale rep?ort by Carla Pampe)
Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Defense Department needs to upgrade its electronic warfare capability and its EW training ranges; just as his predecessor said at his own confirmation hearing.