The $7 billion, multi-year program to upgrade the Minuteman III ICBM through guidance and propulsion replacement programs is essentially complete, and the Air Force was recently instructed by Congress to plan on maintaining the nuclear missiles not just to 2020, but through 2030. ICBMs are so important to America’s deterrent posture, however, that the commander of Air Force Global Strike Command says it is already time to think about what comes next. “It’s not too early to begin considering, again, what a next-generation ICBM might look like,” Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, AFGSC commander, said Thursday at AFA’s Global Warfare Symposium in Beverly Hills, Calif. Continue
B-21 Raider First Flight Now Postponed to 2023
May 20, 2022
The Air Force says the B-21 Raider won't make its first flight until 2023; about a six-month delay from the last official estimates. No reason was given for the delay. While other programs have recently chalked up schedule slips to supply chain and labor shortages, the Air Force has said…