WASHINGTON — With public trust and safety at stake, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered immediate actions Thursday to define the depth of trouble inside the nation’s nuclear force, which has been rocked by disclosures about security lapses, poor discipline, weak morale and other problems that raise questions about nuclear security.
It amounted to the most significant expression of high-level Pentagon concern about the nuclear force since 2008, when then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the top uniformed and civilian officials in the Air Force following a series of mistakes that included an unauthorized flight of nuclear-armed cruise missiles across the country.
Hagel had recently said he was considering what may lay behind problems in the nuclear Air Force — many revealed by The Associated Press— but his chief spokesman said Thursday that the defense secretary concluded urgent remedies were needed.
“To the degree there are systemic problems in the training and professional standards of the nuclear career field, the secretary wants them solved,” the spokesman, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said. “To the degree there are gaps in our understanding or implementation of those standards, he wants them closed. And to the degree leaders have failed in their duties, he wants them held to account.”
Hagel summoned top military officials to a Pentagon conference, to be held within two weeks, to “raise and address” any personnel problems infesting the nuclear force, and he ordered an “action plan” be written within 60 days to explore nuclear force personnel issues, identify remedies, and put those fixes into place quickly. Hagel said he and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, will host the nuclear summit.
The Pentagon chief also said he would assemble a small group of outsiders with expertise in the nuclear field to conduct a broader review of the U.S. nuclear force, with a focus on personnel issues, and to recommend changes “that would help ensure the continued safety, security and effectiveness of our nuclear forces.”
“Personnel failures within this force threaten to jeopardize the trust the American people have placed in us to keep our nuclear weapons safe and secure,” Hagel wrote in a memo to a dozen top officials, including heads of the Air Force and Navy.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the nation’s strategic nuclear forces, welcomed Hagel’s move.
“I remain concerned by the lapses in judgment and discipline displayed by some nuclear missile launch officers in recent months, and I applaud Defense Secretary Hagel’s swift and appropriate actions to identify the root causes of those issues,” Udall said. “Our nation demands a great deal of the men and women in our nuclear enterprise for good reason.”
Since May, the AP has reported that nuclear missile force officers, from the commanding officer on down, had engaged in numerous misbehaviors or lapses. Some of those included failing security tests, violating security rules like leaving the blast door open while one of two officers napped, morale so low an officer complained of “rot” in his force and a report citing worryingly high levels of burnout.
Personnel issues are important because ICBMs are kept on alert every hour of every day, and the potential for human error is ever-present. Some argue that the men and women who hold the keys to the nuclear missiles have lost some of their focus on the mission, while others say their commanders are more to blame.
Not at issue, at least in the short term, is the Obama administration’s commitment to keeping the bulk of the current nuclear force, which is comprised of ballistic missile submarines, nuclear-capable bombers and the Air Force’s fleet of 450 Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles based in silos in five states. Hagel recently reiterated his support for the nuclear force and said he is not questioning its safety.
Hagel directed his concern mainly at the Air Force and its Minuteman 3 missiles, which have been the source of many of the problems the AP reported.
And just last week, in a disclosure that apparently startled Hagel, the Air Force said a drug investigation that began at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., which operates one-third of the ICBM force, led to a separate investigation of alleged cheating on proficiency tests by 34 officers who operate the missiles there.
Those 34 officers had their security clearances suspended in a scandal that the commander at Malmstrom, Col. Robert W. Stanley II, told the AP in an interview last Friday had left his force “brokenhearted.”
Last month an Air Force investigation revealed that Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, who was commander of the nuclear missile force, had engaged in embarrassing behavior while leading a U.S. government delegation to a nuclear security exercise in Russia, including heavy drinking and cavorting with suspicious women. He had been fired in October, just days after another senior nuclear officer, Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina, was relieved of command at U.S. Strategic Command amid allegations linked to counterfeit gambling chips.
Kirby said no single event had prompted Hagel to take action. Rather, Hagel had taken notice of a string of news reports about problems in the ICBM force, including AP reporting that “made an impact on his thinking,” Kirby said.
With an eye toward avoiding further surprises, Hagel’s planned Pentagon summit meeting with top officers, as well as other actions announced Thursday, include participation by Navy officials responsible for their portion of the nuclear arsenal. The Navy has not suffered any recent reported lapses or failures within its nuclear submarine force, but Kirby said Hagel believed it would be imprudent for him not to examine the entirety of the arsenal.
“What the secretary wants to know is, what else don’t I know” about problems inside the force, Kirby said.
AP Findings on Troubles in Nation’s Nuclear Force
A string of nuclear missteps, many uncovered by The Associated Press, have beset the nation’s nuclear force in the last year:
__ Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel orders on Thursday an independent review of the nuclear force and summons the most senior Pentagon leaders to discuss its serious missteps, leadership lapses and personnel problems.
— On Jan. 16, the Air Force said at least 34 nuclear missile launch officers have been implicated in a cheating scandal and have been stripped of their certification in what the Air Force believes is the largest such breach of integrity in the nuclear force. The cheating involves the monthly test on their knowledge of how to operate the missiles.
— As part of the Jan. 16 announcement of the alleged cheating, the Air Force said three ICBM launch officers — two at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and one at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming — were among 11 officers at six bases implicated in an illegal-narcotics investigation.
—In April, 17 missile crew members in the 91st Missile Wing at Minot, N.D., were deemed temporarily unfit for duty and given weeks of remedial training. The wing’s deputy commander of operations complained of “rot” in the force. Later, the officer in charge of the 91st’s missile crew training and proficiency was relieved of duty.
—In August, the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom failed a safety and security inspection. Nine days later the officer in charge of security forces there was relieved of duty. In October the unit passed a do-over test.
—On Oct. 11, the Air Force fired Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, commander of the 20th Air Force, which is responsible for the entire Minuteman 3 missile force, amid an investigation of an alcohol-related complaint. This happened two days after a Navy admiral who was second-in-command at U.S. Strategic Command, the military’s main nuclear war-fighting command, was relieved of duty amid a gambling-related investigation.
—The AP reported that twice last year the Air Force punished officers involved in separate incidents of opening the blast door of their launch control center while one of the two launch officers was asleep, in violation of Air Force rules.
—In November, the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh, disclosed that as a result of the Carey firing, the Air Force would take a closer look at the background of candidates for general officer-level nuclear command jobs.
—Also in November, the AP reported that key members of the Air Force’s nuclear missile force are feeling “burnout” from what they see as exhausting, unrewarding and stressful work. The finding, in an unpublished RAND Corp. study provided to the AP in draft form, also cited heightened levels of misconduct such as spousal abuse and said court-martial rates in the nuclear missile force in 2011 and 2012 were more than twice as high as in the overall Air Force. The courts martial rate in 2013 declined but was still higher than the overall Air Force.