Major General Mike Lutton, USAF
Commander, 20th Air Force
Michael John Lutton earned an undergraduate degree from Kent State University where he was a member of the Air Force ROTC. He earned an M.S. in Systems Management from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He availed himself of many other education opportunities afforded him through the Air Force.
Lutton is a career space and missions officer. He has commanded the Air Force’s only group providing initial training for the nation’s space and intercontinental ballistic missile operations and air-launched cruise missile maintenance forces. He served as a weapons officer, including with Operation Allied Force.
He served the Joint Staff at the Pentagon as the Deputy Director for Nuclear and Homeland Defense Operations.
Lutton is presently Commander, Twentieth Air Force, Air Force Global Strike Command, Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. He is responsible for more than 12,000 Airmen providing nuclear global strike and nuclear weapons sustainment for the Air Force.
In the News…
The U.S. Air Force operates hundreds of underground nuclear missile silos, spread across Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. As towering wind turbines grow in number and size, they are also moving closer to the missile sites each year. The Air Force has asked Congress to pass legislation that would create a two-nautical-mile buffer zone around each missile site.
Crews that operate UH-1 Huey rotary craft are affected by the wind turbines. Under the legislation, current towers would not be affected unless an energy company directed refurbishing it to make it taller. Existing sites could still be a problem for aircrews.
Major General Michael Lutton, who oversees all missile silo sites said some of the modern turbines have towers 650 feet tall “which is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.” The diameter of the circle swept by the rotating blades can be as much as 367 feet, he said, the distance from home plate to the left field pole at the Colorado Rockies’ baseball stadium.
He said, presently, 46 missile sites are severely encroached upon.
