Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
3/27/2015
In the latest of a series of announced leadership shuffles in the Air Force’s Nuclear Enterprise, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last week announced that President Obama has nominated Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, 20th Air Force commander, for promotion to the rank of lieutenant general and assignment as deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration (A10). Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak has worked in the post since March 2013. Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in November announced that the A10 position would be elevated from a two- to a three-star billet, which was one of more than 200 recommendations that emerged from two reviews that examined nuclear forces. Weinstein also serves as commander of U.S. Strategic Command’s Task Force 214 at F.E. Warren AFB.
DoD announced on March 17 that Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), has been tapped to serve as STRATCOM deputy commander, a post currently held by Lt. Gen. James Kowalski. That news came less than three weeks after DoD announced Obama has tapped Gen. Robin Rand to serve in Wilson’s current position. In November, Hagel also announced the boost of AFGSC’s billet from three to four stars. “One of the beliefs is that in the past, we have not resourced this particular mission set to the extent that we need to do and then also have to level of rank focused on, so the Secretary directed that we elevate…both in resources that we’re putting into this critical mission set, but also to the focus on rank,” Harencak said March 23 at the Carnegie Nuclear Conference. “And in Washington, as some of you may or may not know, rank matters.”
More Funding?
Col. Mark Suriano, Director of the Nuclear Capabilities Directorate at Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, told NS&D Monitor last week that the elevation of the A10 and Global Strike Command billets would give the service “the horsepower necessary to have more fenced funds when you go in,” he said. Also, Global Strike Command never got its Total Obligation Authority when it stood up in 2009. Suriano said discussions on that topic are ongoing and the issue might pop up in the future.
