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Changes coming on nuke training, inspection

Air Force leaders announced changes to the organization, training practices and inspection process of its nuclear enterprise following the service’s Nuclear Summit held on Sept. 18 at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.

Officials reviewed the recommendations made by the Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management on Sept. 12 in a report that ripped the Air Force’s current nuclear structure proposing the service realign all of its nuclear missions under Air Force Space Command and rename it Air Force Strategic Command.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley promised the service would discuss such a reorganization, but Ed Gulick, a service spokesman wrote in an e-mail Saturday morning that no final decisions on that would be made until early October, when the Air Force’s top generals will meet.

However, Air Force leaders did approve four major changes to its nuclear enterprise during the summit related to recommendations made by the task force headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger:

* An expanded Nuclear Weapons Center will oversee all nuclear sustainment including Weapons Storage Areas inside the U.S. that store nuclear weapons. However, the Air Force press release did not mention if the center would also oversee U.S. nuclear weapons stationed at airbases inside Europe like the Schlesinger's task force recommended.

* The Air Force will reshape its inspection process to be more centralized eliminating the prior practice of sending multiple inspection teams to nuclear bases with different sets of standards. Inspections will be “built upon common policies and procedures effectively integrated with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency,” according to the service's release. The Air Force Inspector General decided last June to cut amount of warning nuclear units receive before inspections from six months to 72 hours. The Schlesinger task force recommended cutting that down to one hour. No announcement was made regarding any further changes.

* Security personnel assigned to nuclear units will see an expansion to the lead-in and follow-on mission specific training they complete. This decision comes after inspectors found several deficiencies in the nuclear security provided at the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., during a Nuclear Surety Inspection the base failed last year.

Air Force Headquarters will now have a new staff office that will “provide singular nuclear focus on nuclear matters.” It’s unclear what general will be tapped to lead the new Headquarters Air Force/A10 staff office in the Pentagon. This comes after Gates said on Sept. 12 he still had concerns regarding the Air Force’s “unity of command” regarding nuclear matters.

The announcement of the changes comes just days before its expected that several Air Force generals and colonels will be disciplined for mistakes made handling nuclear weapons and nuclear-related materials over the past year, said congressional and Air Force sources.