Air Force to strengthen inspections and expand training for nuclear mission

Air Force leaders have delayed making commitments to far-reaching organizational changes recommended by a task force on nuclear weapons management, but have agreed to a number of narrower reforms.

During a Sept. 18 summit at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, key leaders from the Air Force, other Defense Department agencies, the National Security Council, the Energy Department and RAND Corp., discussed ways to improve stewardship of nuclear weapons. Air Force officials agreed to consider a proposal for a significant reorganization at a meeting of senior service leaders in early October.

In a report earlier this month, the Defense Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management, chaired by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, urged the Air Force to replace its Space Command with a Strategic Command, vested with authority and accountability for the nuclear mission. In addition, the report recommended all bomber aircraft be consolidated into a single force assigned to the Strategic Command.

As the single major command responsible for the nuclear mission, Strategic Command would advocate for resources, provide clear lines of authority and accountability, and ensure appropriate staffing and expertise at all levels of the nuclear mission, Schlesinger said at a Pentagon briefing earlier this month. The bomber force assigned to the command would provide trained forces for conventional missions as well as manage the nuclear deterrent mission.

Air Force Capt. Michael Andrews said service leaders would talk about those changes during a three-day October conference at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio that will include the service's four-star generals and acting secretary Michael Donley.

But, in a statement released over the weekend, the Air Force outlined four reforms agreed upon at last week's summit:

• The Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., will be expanded and given responsibility for all nuclear sustainment activities, including those at weapons storage areas in the continental United States. This change is intended to clarify ambiguity in the chain of command.
• The nuclear inspection process will be strengthened and centralized, built upon common policies and procedures integrated with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
• Service leaders will consolidate and expand training within the Air Education and Training Command for security personnel assigned to nuclear duties.
• A new headquarters office will provide singular focus on nuclear matters within the service.

The task force was especially critical of the fact that inspections were pre-announced, creating little incentive for personnel to remain vigilant around the clock.

As a result of that criticism, the Air Force inspector general now is rewriting regulations to require all commands to conduct no-notice nuclear inspections," Andrews said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates created the Schlesinger task force in June to review Air Force lapses in nuclear weapons management, as well as the other military services' nuclear inventory control procedures.

The review was sparked by the discovery earlier this year that forward-section assemblies used on Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles were erroneously shipped to Taiwan in October and November 2006. That discovery followed another serious incident in which an Air Force bomber crew mistakenly flew nuclear weapons from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana in August 2007.

The Schlesinger task force found, "There has been an unambiguous, dramatic and unacceptable decline in the Air Force's commitment to perform the nuclear mission and, until very recently, little has been done to reverse it."

That erosion of capability and apparent disinterest in addressing it led Gates to fire the Air Force chief of staff and secretary in June. Current Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and acting Secretary Michael Donley have repeatedly said their top priority is to rebuild the service's nuclear expertise and accountability.

In July, the Air Force established its own nuclear task force, made up of about 30 subject matter specialists from across the service's nuclear enterprise. That task force is currently tracking more than 180 corrective actions and analyzing causes of the problems.