The 150th Minuteman III solid-propellant booster replaced under the propulsion replacement program at Malmstrom was lowered into Launch Facility Echo-08 Aug. 18, extending the service life of the “First Aces” through 2020.
The first MMIII replacement booster was delivered to Air Force Space Command in April 2001. The overall cost of the program was about $2 billion.
“This program is absolutely vital to the continued reliability of the Minuteman III weapon system,” said Col. Jeffrey Frankhouser, 341st Maintenance Group commander. “We conducted many studies over the years and successfully determined when the right time was to remanufacture these motors ahead of need.”
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