More Missiles To Go?

The Great Falls Tribune reports that some community leaders around Malmstrom AFB, Mont.,—and other USAF missile bases—worry a new Administration might just decide to make further reductions in the nation’s nuclear weapons force. Malmstrom already stands to lose 50 of its 200 ICBMs and a missile squadron, prompting Montana lawmakers to begin urging the Air Force to consider an additional mission for the base, which lost its flying operation in 1995. In fact, last year they tasked USAF in the 2008 defense policy bill to study creating a new associate unit and restoring the Malmstrom runway. That, apparently, has not panned out. The Air Force, according to another Tribune report, cited budget constraints that would prevent such an effort.