Air Force preparing supplemental EIS for Sentinel, scraps 3 town halls

The Air Force has scrapped three town halls this month to discuss the planned LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by Northrop Grumman.

Two of the town halls were scheduled for Aug. 19 and Aug. 20 in Lewistown and Conrad, Mont., respectively, to discuss Sentinel for the Air Force 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base (AFB), Mont. The other cancelled town hall in Kimball, Neb. on Aug. 28 was to discuss Sentinel for the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo. 

A fourth town hall this month to engage the public for Sentinel plans for the 91st Missile Wing at Minot AFB, N.D., however, is to proceed as planned on Aug. 26 at Minot State University.

“The Department of the Air Force [DAF] is committed to keeping the public informed of progress on the development of the Sentinel supplemental Environmental Impact Statement [EIS] and implementation of the Sentinel deployment program,” the department said last week. “However, the DAF has determined additional time, and effort is required before proceeding with the [three] Sentinel town hall and public scoping meetings.”

“The DAF understands the value of public engagement on the DAF’s Sentinel weapon system’s replacement of the Minuteman III…and is committed to obtaining public comments about this project,” according to the department.

Construction plans for Sentinel silos have changed significantly in the last year and a half.

A decade ago, up until DoD informed Congress of a critical Nunn-McCurdy cost breach in January 2024, Pentagon leaders thought that they could re-use the old, 1960s-era Minuteman silos–and their steel and concrete–to build the then called Ground Based Strategic Deterrent system more quickly and cheaply. Yet, the Sentinel missile is significantly larger than Minuteman III, and environmental issues in the silos are of concern, including water damage, asbestos, lead paint, and other toxic chemicals.

The Air Force is restructuring the Sentinel program after DoD affirmed that the future ICBM is critical to national security–a requirement for program continuance after a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach. That Sentinel restructuring and new integrated schedule is to happen by next summer.

In June, Air Force Gen. Thomas Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), said that he had approved Sentinel silo plans for two of the three missile wings, but AFGSC has not said whether the silos will be “green fields” developments, “brown fields,” or both that use existing infrastructure (Defense Daily, June 7).

The Air Force has said that it will try to minimize the use of private land and required payments to landowners for such use but that the department “needs access to local property for environmental analysis, land surveys, appraisals, and to assess construction locations to support construction and system deployment needs.”

The department said that it could use that land for “new silos, launch centers, fiber optic communication lines, temporary support sites adjacent to existing sites or as a location for a Sentinel communications tower.”

The mammoth, decade-long Sentinel project is to kick off with the building of fiber optic communications lines in the spring of 2027.

Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily originally published this article.