Editor’s note: the story first appeared in Exchange Monitor affiliate publication Defense Daily.
On June 24, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. John Newberry, the head of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M., dismissed Air Force Col. Charles Clegg, the head of the Sentinel Systems Directorate at Hill AFB, Utah since the summer of 2022.
“The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center Commander removed the Sentinel Systems Director from his position on June 24th due to a loss of confidence in his ability to lead the directorate,” the Air Force said in a statement. “He was removed because he did not follow organizational procedures. This removal action is not directly related to the Nunn-McCurdy review.”
When asked, the Air Force did not specify which “organizational procedures” Clegg did not follow, and Defense Daily was unable to reach Clegg by phone for comment on June 26.
Bloomberg News first reported Clegg’s dismissal on June 25.
“It is difficult to believe Col. Clegg’s dismissal is not related to the Sentinel program’s Nunn McCurdy breach,” Dan Grazier, senior fellow for the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center, wrote in a July 26 email.
“Such a move echoes the 2010 firing of [U.S. Marine Corps] Maj. Gen. David Heinz from his leadership position in the Joint Strike Fighter program which occurred when that program suffered its own breach,” Grazier wrote. “I fear Col. Clegg has become the Air Force’s scapegoat ahead of the congressional hearing about the program on July 24. The leadership shakeup certainly gives the appearance of a cynical move on the Air Force’s part to show someone is being held accountable for the program’s shortcomings.”
Defense Daily queried the offices of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.)–a critic of Sentinel who is spearheading the July 24 congressional hearing.
Sentinel was set to replace the existing fleet of nuclear-tipped Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles starting in 2030 or so. The first Sentinel missiles will carry a W87-0 warhead, taken from Minuteman and adapted for use on the replacement missile.
Later Sentinel missiles will carry a W87-1, a new warhead based on a previously tested design with a freshly cast first-stage core, or pit, from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This weapon will replace the W78 warhead now used on Minuteman III.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the design leader for both Sentinel warheads.