Kehler replacing retiring Chilton at STRATCOM - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Kehler replacing retiring Chilton at STRATCOM

Gen. Kevin Chilton is retiring after leading the joint U.S. Strategic Command for three years, and President Obama has nominated Gen. Bob Kehler to replace him.

For Kehler, this marks the second time he’ll assume command from Chilton if the Senate approves his move to STRATCOM headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. He replaced Chilton as the boss of Space Command in October 2007.

Kehler’s replacement had not been announced by Friday.

Chilton, a fighter test pilot and NASA space shuttle commander, had been mentioned as a successor to Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz, but Schwartz still has two years to go on his four-year tour as chief.

Since arriving at STRATCOM in October 2007, Chilton has been a vocal advocate for modernizing the nation’s aging stockpile of nuclear weapons.

In written statement announcing his departure, Chilton said, “Now, it’s time to close this chapter of my career and say thanks to all of those who have supported [my wife] Cathy and me over the past three decades.”

Kehler is already familiar with STRATCOM, serving as deputy commander from 2005 to 2007.

Kehler’s replacement at Space Command on Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., will take over a command that changed radically under his watch.

Space Command lost its operational nuclear missile mission to Global Strike Command in 2009 as part of the Air Force’s decision to put its nuclear bombers and missiles under the same leadership. The same year, Space Command gained the service’s cyber warfare mission.

Potential successors to Kehler who have extensive space or communication backgrounds:

• Lt. Gen. Larry James, commander of 14th Air Force, whose career has focused on satellite development and launch operations.

• Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, head of Global Strike Command, and a career nuclear missile officer and former Space Command vice commander.

• Lt. Gen. William Lord, chief of the Air Staff’s Warfighting Integration Office and one of the service’s most senior communications officers.

• Lt. Gen. William Shelton, assistant Air Force vice chief of staff with a career focused on space operations and Space Command staff assignments including director of operations.

• Lt. Gen. John “Tom” Sheridan, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center.