A new unit set to manage upkeep of the U.S. ICBM fleet was scheduled to begin operations yesterday at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 12).
Roughly 12 military and civilian staffers form the 798th Munitions Maintenance Group, which will lead maintenance, handling and control of the Minuteman 3 arsenal. Such work previously was the responsibility of individual units at Minot and other Air Force bases in California, Montana and Wyoming.
"We will definitely be on the road visiting other units, and we'll have daily contact with them to support them," said Col. David Milner Jr., commander of the Minot unit.
The new unit is indicative of the Air Force's effort to improve handling of its nuclear mission after a series of mishaps, which included the 2007 unintended transport of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from Minot to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
The Air Force earlier this month formally activated its Global Strike Command, which will manage the U.S. arsenal of long-range ballistic missiles and strategic bombers (see GSN, Aug. 7).
A second bomber squadron is set to be deployed next month at Minot in order to bolster nuclear-mission training of B-52 bomber crews, AP reported (James MacPherson, Associated Press, Aug. 18).