Dep. SecDef to Visit Minot

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work departed yesterday for a multi-day trip that will end at Minot AFB, where Work will seek feedback from airmen about the effectiveness of recently implemented Nuclear Enterprise recommendations. According to a release, Work, who serves as Chairman of the Nuclear Deterrent Enterprise Review Group, said he has received extensive input from Air Force and Navy nuclear forces as the Defense Department seeks to correct deficiencies uncovered last year. "So I want to go out and talk with the folks and compare what they’re saying," he said. "Are they seeing the improvements that I’m being told are happening?"

 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel commissioned two reviews—one internal and one external—after it was discovered in January 2014 that Malmstrom AFB missileers had cheated on monthly proficiency tests, and followed up by announcing a comprehensive set of reforms in November designed to improve resource and morale deficiencies within the nuclear enterprise. Last summer, the Air Force started the Force Improvement Program, aimed at improving mission focus and morale throughout Global Strike Command. Work said the members of the nuclear enterprise should know that “if any defense mission is growing in importance, it is theirs,” the release states. Work will travel to Minot after delivering the keynote address at the U.S. Naval Institute’s 2015 WEST Conference and visiting the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company shipyard, both in San Diego.