U.S. Air Force stacks its next nuclear missile for first time
The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman have fully assembled an inert version of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the company announced Sept. 14, 2026. The vertical assembly is a step toward flight testing the missile in 2027. Engineers stacked all of the missileβs stages, propulsion elements, and [β¦]
Open-source analysts say wreckage from a short-range ballistic missile turned up in northern Yemen this week, and they believe it points to a weapon type Saudi Arabia has never been confirmed to use before. The debris, identified as the booster stage of a Chinese-made DF-15A, was found in the Raghwan district of Marib Governorate, according [β¦]
Chinaβs nuclear weapon stockpile grew to an estimated 620 warheads as of January 2026, up from about 600 a year earlier, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Instituteβs newly published World Nuclear Forces assessment. SIPRI researchers Hans M. Kristensen and Matt Korda say the increase is part of a broader expansion that shows no [β¦]
Air Force maintenance crews completed a first-of-its-kind overhaul of a Minuteman III missile suspension system on August 18, removing the component from a launch facility near Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, shipping it to California for a full refurbishment, and reinstalling it back at the same site. The work was carried out by the [β¦]