AIR FORCE UNDERGOING ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS OF NUCLEAR PERFORMANCE ISSUES

Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler ordered a root cause analysis of the morale and performance problems facing the Air Force’s nuclear crews, Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, the commander of the Air Force’s Global Strike Command, said yesterday. The morale among Air Force nuclear officers has been of particular concern over the last six years as the service has tried to reinvigorate its nuclear mission in the wake of several embarrassing nuclear blunders. An unreleased Rand Corp. report and an email from senior leaders at the 91st Missile Wing at Minot (N.D.) Air Force Base in June revealed that the missile wing was rife with dissatisfaction among its nuclear officers. Previously, it was reported that 19 Minot officers had been temporarily decertified after poor performance on an inspection (17 have since been recertified), with the deputy commander of the missile wing, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, complaining of “rot” in the ranks in an email that was first released by the Associated Press in May. “Bottom line, the wing leadership acted aggressively,” Kowalski said during a speech at the Capitol Hill Club yesterday. “They did not act outside the bounds that we would expect them to act.” He said the root cause analysis ordered by Kehler earlier this year would likely take another nine months to a year to complete. The idea is to “keep drilling back until you find the thing within the process that you can fix that ensures it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “So it ends up being about an 18-month solution to ensure that the changes you’ve made have really taken effect.”