WASHINGTON — An Air Force official charged with oversight of the service’s nuclear weapons predicts that a plan to dig hundreds of new silos for the Sentinel ICBM program will save time and money, but cautioned that the new facilities may not all fit on existing federal lands.
Speaking during a virtual forum hosted by the Mitchell Institute on Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, said the Air Force’s recent shift toward building fresh silos for the beleaguered LGM-35A Sentinel should save money, largely as a result of speeding up the missile’s deployment. Since the Sentinel’s nuclear-tipped predecessor, the Minuteman III, needs to remain on alert as it is slowly phased out, digging new silos can enable more work to be done simultaneously, Gebara reasoned.
Still, placing those new silos will be a challenge, since they may not all fit on federal lands, Gebara said — raising the prospect that the government will have to acquire private property to meet the need.
“In some small cases, we may need to make purchases,” Gebara said. “But I believe building all new silos is actually not an extender of time and cost. It’s actually saving time and cost.”
During a public town hall Tuesday held by Minot Air Force Base — one of three installations that host the service’s sprawling ICBM fields — Director of ICBM Modernization Maj. Gen. Colin Connor said the transition to Sentinel will also be an opportunity to shore up the remaining Minuteman III fleet, which can benefit from spare parts salvaged from decommissioned missiles. Connor then said “the first site at F.E. Warren” — an Air Force base home to one of the service’s other nuclear missile fields — “has been taken down.”
It was not clear if Connor meant that the first Minuteman III silo has been decommissioned as part of the transition process to Sentinel, and the Air Force did not respond by press time when asked for clarity on his remarks.
Service officials during the town hall explained that new silos will also be able to address issues at current sites. For example, according to Katie Parks, the Air Force’s deputy ICBM program executive officer, some silos are prone to flooding that didn’t occur in the past. Others may also have new risks like wind turbines located nearby that could pose a hazard to helicopters.
As the Air Force prepares a supplemental environmental impact statement for the new silos and scouts sites to put them, “You all will know where the wrong places to put them are,” Parks told attendees. “We’ll need that help from you.”
Minot is the last base planned to transition to Sentinel, and Parks said work on the project may not fully conclude until the 2040s. Exact timelines and cost were not available, officials said, due to the Air Force’s ongoing restructuring of the program.
B-21, B-52 Test Flights
Elsewhere during the Mitchell Institute discussion, Gebara said he “believe[s]” that a second test article of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber will perform its maiden flight before the end of the year, but emphasized the milestone is “event-based.” Led by prime contractor Northrop Grumman, the B-21 first took flight late last year. Northrop is also the prime for Sentinel.
“I believe it will happen before the end of the year, but we’re not going to ever give them an artificial date that they have to make if it doesn’t bring the test program along to where they need to be,” Gebara said. “We’re going to proceed as we can, efficiently, effectively and with a sense of urgency, but we’re also going to be event-based.”
Separately, Gebara mentioned that a program to field a new radar for the B-52, which has seen both a cost breach and significant delay this year, is “very close” to delivering the first radar to Edwards Air Force Base to begin flight testing. The B-52 modernization program, which includes an effort to incorporate new engines, is led by Boeing.
“I don’t have a specific date for you today, but I believe that is turning a corner,” he said.
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Author: Michael Marrow
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