US nuclear force reviews find security flaws and poor leadership

Defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, to order major changes and billions in extra funding to improve management of arsenal

An unarmed Minuteman III missile shoots over Vandenberg, California. At one stage three bases in different states had to share one set of tools to tighten bolts on the warhead end of the missile

 

Hagel is set to announce the results of the reviews on Friday and to outline the actions he has ordered, including the investment of billions of extra funding, to improve nuclear force management.

 

Two senior defence officials discussed the Hagel plan on Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to be quoted by name.

 

They said Hagel’s moves, to be announced on Friday, were not dramatic but were designed to get to the core of the problem.

 

The reviews – one by Pentagon officials and the other by outside experts – concluded that the structure of US nuclear forces was so incoherent that it could not be properly managed in its current form, and that this explained why top-level officials were often unaware of problems below them.

 

The officials said the reviews found a “disconnect” between what nuclear force leaders said and what they delivered to lower-level troops who executed the missions in the field.

 

To illustrate the extent of decay in the intercontinental ballistic missile force, the reviews found that maintenance crews used to have access to only one set of tools required to tighten bolts on the warhead end of the Minuteman III missile, and that this tool set was being used by crews at all three ICBM bases in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. They had to share it via Federal Express delivery, the officials said. The crews now had one tool set at each base.

 

The reviews also found that a combination of problems amounted to fundamental flaws, rather than random or periodic slip-ups, the officials said. The nuclear forces were currently meeting the demands of the mission, but were finding it increasingly difficult to cope.

 

Among his more significant moves to address the problems, Hagel has authorised the air force to put a four-star general in charge of its nuclear forces, the officials said.

 

The top air force nuclear commander is currently a three-star. Lieutenant General Stephen Wilson is responsible for the 450 Minuteman ICBMs and the nuclear bomber force.

 

Hagel has concluded that a four-star general would be able to exert more influence within the air force and send a signal to the entire force that the mission is taken seriously, the officials said.

 

Hagel also agreed to a proposal to upgrade the top nuclear force official at air force headquarters in the Pentagon from a two-star general to a three-star, the officials said.

 

The review’s authors, retired air force general Larry Welch and retired navy admiral John Harvey Jr, found fault with one of the unique features of life in the nuclear forces. The personnel reliability programme, designed to monitor the mental fitness of people to be entrusted with the world’s deadliest weapons, had become a burdensome administrative exercise that detracted from the mission, the authors found, according to the officials. Hagel has ordered that it be overhauled.

 

Hagel concluded that, despite tight Pentagon budgets, billions of dollars more would be needed over the next five years to upgrade equipment, including replacing the Vietnam-era UH-1 Huey helicopter fleet that is part of the security forces at ICBM bases. The officials said Hagel would propose an extra $1bn to $10bn in investment.

 

The navy, which operates nuclear-armed submarines, had suffered from a shortage of personnel and exam cheating among nuclear reactor training instructors.

 

When he ordered the reviews in February, shortly after the air force announced it was investigating an exam-cheating ring at one ICBM base and a related drug investigation implicating missile crew members, Hagel was said to be astounded at such behaviour.

 

Hans Kristensen, a nuclear expert with the Federation of American Scientists, said on Thursday that while he had not seen the Hagel reviews or heard what actions Hagel was ordering, he was sceptical that it would make much difference.

 

“Throwing money after problems may fix some technical issues but it is unlikely to resolve the dissolution that must come from sitting in a silo hole in the midwest with missiles on high alert to respond to a nuclear attack that is unlikely to ever come,” Kristensen said.

Title : US nuclear force reviews find security flaws and poor leadership
Description : Defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, to order major changes and billions in extra funding to improve management of arsenal An unarmed Minuteman I...
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