Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
4/3/2015
Senior Air Force leaders met this week to discuss nuclear command and control (C2) and how it fits in with national command and control structure as part of an ongoing quarterly roundtable aimed at discussing issues in the nuclear enterprise, the service’s top enlisted official said during a breakfast speech April 2. The Air Force initiated the meetings two years ago. In recent years, officials have pointed to aging weapon systems and have advocated more actively for nuclear modernization. Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force Chief of Staff, said the intent of the last meeting was for leaders to reeducate themselves. “So we sit there for a couple hours; we have some people come in who are experts in the business and talk about a particular scenario or give a vignette, and then we talk our way through it so that we start to understand the issues that we face in the nuclear warfighting arena, in the nuclear command and control arena, in the nuclear infrastructure arena, so we’re learning a lot that we should’ve already known,” he said.
While Welsh pointed to a dwindling level of attention on nuclear forces after Strategic Air Command (SAC) disassembled in 1992, he highlighted recent progress, including involvement by Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James in quarterly meetings and the boost of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) from a three- to a four-star billet. Gen. Robin Rand is expected to take over as command chief sometime this summer. The Senate confirmed him on March 27. “The commander of Air Force Global Strike Command should be invited back to have policy discussions in the Department of Defense with the National Security Council,” Welsh said. “They ought to be part of the senior strategic leadership team of this nation, and if they are, we get a very different picture of the Air Force involvement and the Air Force role in that than if they’re not.”
‘It’s the Little Stuff that Makes Life a Little Better’
Welsh also lauded current AFGSC chief Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, 20th Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, wing and squadron commanders and joint chiefs for putting together the Force Improvement Program (FIP), which is aimed at equipping airmen with improved equipment, including uniforms, weapons storage areas, mattresses, new vehicles and WiFi in launch control centers, “things that just make common sense … that unless you live the life, you don’t know,” Welsh said. “It’s not big stuff that appears and reports for major commands. It’s the little stuff that makes life a little bit better.”
He said the FIP has changed some launch crew logistics as well. “They can actually pick which route they’re going to drive to go out to their launch facility,” Welsh said. “Just before, they had to ask permission from the … commander. They can actually do a crew shift changeover, and when they make the changeover, two crew commanders can decide, ‘OK, if this responsibility’s been passed,’ they’ll just report that the other one’s headed back in. Before, they had to wait and get permission to finalize that to head back in. We had moved decision authorities up the chain. I’m sure something happened that wasn’t smart, and we made the whole force pay that price. They’re feeling a little more empowered now, which is good.”
Changing the Perception of Missileer Career Field
The independent Nuclear Enterprise Review completed in June uncovered cheating on monthly proficiency tests by Malmstrom AFB missileers in early 2014. It found that the “lack of tangible recognition” that missile combat crew members earned for their daily deterrence mission contributed to low morale and the desire to leave combat crew duty. Welsh empathized with missileers who previously expressed sentiments of feeling undervalued, after several officials cited neglect and underinvestment that they said weakened the enterprise.
Welsh said he would think “the jury’s still out” if he were a missileer. “I want us to get out of this idea that somehow there is something about the missile career field that is bad, because there’s not,” he said. “I don’t want people there saying that, ‘Well, the Air Force doesn’t value this mission.’” More than ever, Welsh said, Air Force leaders must express to airmen their lofty worth. “I think we have to show that, we have to prove this to them, and that’s fair,” he said. “And I expect them to prove to me that they’re focused on what they’re doing, they’re better than they ever were in that business, and that they’re committed to doing it right, and I see that. And they got to keep showing me that.”
