During a meeting today with the Air Force's officer overseeing our nation's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) force, U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp reinforced her strong support for a robust ICBM force and for servicemembers at North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base and across the country.
Heitkamp, a member of the Senate ICBM Coalition, met with Major General Jack Weinstein, the commander responsible for leading our nation's ICBM force and more than 9,600 Air Force personnel.
"Our nation's ICBMs are such a crucial part of our military and are a proven deterrent to enemies who may wish the U.S. or our allies harm," said Heitkamp. "And the faces behind our ICBMs, our servicemembers -- including those at Minot Air Force Base -- have shown time and time again that they perform a duty that can't be replaced. It's our responsibility to make sure they have the resources they need to keep doing their jobs and support our country's needs. That's why I fought back against potential efforts to eliminate this important part of our military. Today, General Weinstein and I spoke about the importance of ICBMs, and I'll keep pushing to maintain critical support and resources for military personnel and our ICBM force."
Since joining the Senate, Heitkamp has been a fervent supporter of ICBM forces in North Dakota and throughout the country and has been adamant in her opposition to further unnecessary reductions in our nuclear forces:
In December 2013, Heitkamp helped pass legislation to enable our military to have the resources it needs to safeguard our nation, which included a Heitkamp-backed amendment to protect North Dakota's ICBM infrastructure.
Heitkamp and Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) called on the U.S. Department of Defense to follow federal law and halt any move to conduct an environmental study of the ICBM silos at Minot Air Force Base and nationwide, which could potentially lead to the removal of the missiles and closure of the silos.
Heitkamp and members of the Senate ICBM Coalition pressed Admiral James Winnefeld Jr., Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to retain missile silos in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
Heeding their concerns and those of the bipartisan ICBM coalition, Heitkamp and Hoeven announced that the Pentagon decided to preserve all of the nation's missile silos in the military's new strategic force structure under the New START Treaty with Russia.