The Montana Air National Guard’s 120th Fighter Wing kicked off its conversion from F-16 to F-15 fighters with a staged “demolition” of an aircraft hangar last week, reports Peter Johnson of the Great Falls Tribune. The wing is to receive $20 million in the next two years for five more construction projects. The Air Force targeted the unit to lose its F-16s, but the BRAC 2005 commission overruled that in favor of swapping F-16s for F-15s. USAF plans to put upgraded “Golden” Eagles with the 120th FW. MANG officials say they have received $1.2 million for the first two of seven projects, since the commission authorized the conversion. The MANG pilots will have strictly an air-to-air role once they get the F-15s from a Missouri Air Guard unit.
President Joe Biden still hopes to shift to a “sole purpose” policy for nuclear weapons in the future, even as his administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review preserves the U.S.’s longstanding policy of “flexible deterrence,” a top Pentagon official said. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, speaking at a side…