91st Missile Wing gets new leader

Command of the 91st Missile Wing was transferred Tuesday from Col. Robert Vercher to Col. Michael Lutton. Vercher will become deputy director of mission assessment and analysis at U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska — a position Lutton has held for the past two years. 

The 91st Missile Wing oversees 150 Minuteman III missiles buried in silos across 8,500 square miles in northwest and north central North Dakota, and is assigned to Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees nuclear missiles and bombers.

Unit that failed nuclear missile inspection raring for second chance

The commander of a nuclear missile wing that failed a surety inspection earlier this month likened the results to failing a complex physics problem by being off by a “fraction of a decimal point.”

Col. Rob Stanley, commander of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., declined to say what part of the inspection the wing failed because doing so would give too much information to adversaries. The wing, which handles 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, failed because of tactical-level errors during one exercise during the inspection. The failed inspection comes about three months after the Air Force sidelined 19 missile officers from the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., after the wing was rated “marginal” on one aspect of the inspection.