The U.S. Air Force has undertaken a wide variety of initiatives aimed at improving oversight of its nuclear weapons, a senior official said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 7).
"Nuclear deterrence underpins all of our freedom of movement everywhere," Air Force Assistant Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Donald Alston told journalists.
The service has experienced several nuclear-weapon mishaps in recent years, including the accidental transfer of six nuclear-armed cruise missiles across the country in 2007 and last year's discovery that the Pentagon had mistakenly shipped ICBM fuses to Taiwan. The errors led to the 2008 sacking of the Air Force's top military and civilian officials.
The Defense Department's emphasis beginning more than 10 years ago had been on its conventional forces, and then on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Alston said.
"We took active measures to reduce emphasis on nuclear [weapons] because there was an opportunity that seemed to be present there in the early 90's, that you could take it off the front burner because the Cold War was over," he said.
Unexpected circumstances have posed challenges to U.S. nuclear policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to Alston.
"All the other countries in the world that have nuclear [weapons] programs have active nuclear weapons development capacity and programs with one notable exception, and that would be the United States," he said.
The Air Force has established a new nuclear weapons command "to put in one command, which one commander, responsibility for nuclear operational forces; for one commander to set conditions, expectations and impact a culture."
It has also has pursued programs intended to improve education for personnel and training of nuclear inspectors, Alston said.
"We've improved the quality of our inspectors by having common training for all nuclear surety inspectors," he said. "We have a certification program for all the inspectors, and we have a core team of 20 guys that accompany every inspection team."
"We are doing [these improvements] to ensure that those who are (asking themselves) on some regular basis, 'Is today the time that we should challenge the United States?' that the answer continues to be, 'Not today,'" the general said (U.S. Air Force release, Sept. 15).