USAF upgrading Minuteman III ICBM airborne launch control system

The US Air Force awarded two contracts Oct. 3, 2017, for upgrading the system that enables an aircraft to control an intercontinental ballistic missile’s launch from a silo in the ground. The three-year contracts, of about $81 million each, were awarded to Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Littleton, Colorado, and Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs said on Oct. 5, 2017. Read more

A U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury airborne command post flies over Solomons Island, Md. The aircraft provides airborne command, control, and communications. The E-6B is a dual-mission aircraft capable of fulfilling either the E-6A mission or the airborne strategic command post mission and is equipped with an airborne launch control system capable of launching U.S. land based intercontinental ballistic missiles
(Credit: U.S. Navy)