Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
3/27/2015
OGDEN, UTAH—Air Force nuclear missileers are maintaining a safe, secure and effective deterrent, but are doing so at a “diminished margin,” Dr. Jamie Morin, Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, said here at last week’s TRIAD forum. “That’s the most harmful place for us to be, and that’s why I think it’s so important that we’re able to honor that capability,” he said. After last year’s external and internal nuclear enterprise reviews uncovered morale and equipment shortfalls in nuclear forces, CAPE was tasked with evaluating the implementation of 175 recommendations that the reviews outlined for the nuclear enterprise. Morin highlighted that the Defense Department has programmed an $8 billion plus-up across the nuclear enterprise for the Future Years’ Defense Program. The Navy and Air Force drew up the budget, Morin said, which is important because it was developed firsthand, and not passed top-down.
Morin said he was recently in Minot, where he had already noticed some changes. “You see some of the small stuff, but the small stuff that matters is happening, like replacement of really nasty old bunk beds in the launch control capsules with new mattresses,” he said. “I mean, little stuff that’s only little if you’re not the guy or gal sitting on it.”
Broad Recommendations
Morin said the force is not implementing every recommendation, because many are too broad. For example, one was “stop firing people,” he said. “We’re not going to simply say our measure of success is that no one was fired in the Department of Defense,” he said. “So we’re working with the services to understand the details of each of the recommendations and the right way to measure the intent of the recommendation.” Morin said CAPE has briefed Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work on what metrics to measure to. “We have laid all that out,” he said, with declining to provide classified specifics.
Anonymity
Morin said part of his task involves traveling to nuclear bases and holding focus groups. Two weeks ago, he said he went to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, where sailors ranking from junior noncommissioned officers up to captains shared with Morin how they felt about their service and what they were doing on a largely anonymous basis, he said. “Very frank, excellent conversations, which we largely do on a not-for-attribution basis, so that people can feel that they can talk,” Morin said. “And so we are gathering insights, we’re listening to people, we’re testing what we hear from people against our data wherever we can and I think bringing the critical, but supported-by to all of us.”
