PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called today for a new accountability in the military, especially in handling a U.S. nuclear arsenal that he says has fallen prey to “a serious degradation” of safeguards that led to potentially deadly mishaps.
“When you see failures or growing problems in other areas, outside your lane … throw a flag. Bring them to the attention of people who can do something about it,” Gates said in a speech to about 400 Air Force men and women at Peterson Air Force Base, east of Colorado Springs.
“None of the services easily accept honest criticism from outside their branch or scrutiny that exposes institutional shortcomings,” Gates said. “This is something that must change across the military” as the nation faces increasingly complex security challenges.
U.S. nuclear deterrence of potential enemies “is even more important,” he said, “with our ground forces so decisively committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Gates’ 20 minute-speech in an auditorium — one of three at key Air Force bases — targeted airmen and women at headquarters for the nation’s massive intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile arsenal. The United States positions about 2,900 nuclear warheads on bombers, on submarines and in underground silos across the country, including 49 in Colorado and 400 in Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming. A few hundred sit in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, holdovers from Cold War containment of the now-defunct Soviet Union.
Pentagon officials staged the tour as Gates prepares to face NATO defense ministers this week in Europe.
Gates is highlighting his overhaul of top military leadership and inviting “unvarnished, straight from the shoulder” questions from Air Force personnel, but with no reporters present.
Today’s speech followed Gates’ nomination of longtime Pentagon official Michael Donley and Gen. Norton Schwartz, who must be confirmed by the Senate, to run the Air Force starting June 21. Gates last week fired Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff T. Michael Moseley for failing to stop an erosion of safety standards.
An internal Air Force report had highlighted embarrassing mishaps. In March, Air Force officials discovered they’d mistakenly shipped to Taiwan in 2006 four fusing devices used to trigger nuclear warheads on missiles. This perturbed China, threatening to unsettle the already-volatile China-Taiwan standoff. Last August, Air Force pilots unknowingly flew a B-52 bomber mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from North Dakota to Louisiana.
Stewardship of nuclear weapons “remains our most sensitive mission,” Gates said, decrying a degradation of safety and expertise over at least a decade.
“The mere existence of weapons with such destructive power alters the international landscape and rightly brings much scrutiny to bear on how they are handled.”
He said the problem is threefold: No single official is in charge of nuclear weapons oversight, a failure to use existing safeguards, and difficulty retaining people with sufficient nuclear weapons technical expertise.
The hasty efforts to restore credibility before heading to Europe on Wednesday evening reflect growing concerns in Europe, said Charles Ferguson, science and technology fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington and a former Navy officer on a nuclear submarine.
“The view of a lot of my counterparts in other countries, until these incidents, was that the United States had the best nuclear security in the world. Now, it’s not clear we can make that statement,” Ferguson said.
“Some Europeans aren’t comfortable” keeping U.S. nuclear weapons in their countries any longer, he said. “They’re saying: ‘We haven’t been in the Cold War for 16 years. So why do we need U.S. nuclear weapons stored in Europe?’ ”
Gates planned to deliver a similar speech today at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, home of Air Force Mobility Command, which runs tanker refueling for nuclear bombers. He spoke Monday with combat commanders at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
Some experts question whether replacing Air Force top brass will be sufficient to solve what appear to be entrenched problems.
“It’s not clear changes at the top will suffice,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association think tank in Washington that advocates stronger safeguards.
Gates’ decapitation of the Air Force “will send a signal through the chain of command that better practices have to be followed and enforced. But I don’t expect this will be the last time that nuclear weapons-related parts are going to be shipped to the wrong locations, or mislabeled, or lost in the vast procurement and supply system that we have. The solution is to change the operational practices that allow for live nuclear warheads to be available for transport from one Air Force base to another, and to make a comprehensive re-assessment of the system for warehousing spare parts.”
Bruce Finley can be reached at 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
