Text fwd: Task force says StratCom is spread too thin

Fwd from Frank Cordaro

*Image Source*
same as the original article below

http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10570260
Published Sunday February 22, 2009
Task force says StratCom is spread too thin BY HENRY J. CORDES WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

A Defense Department task force thinks the U.S. Strategic Command has taken on too many new missions that detract from its historic, vital role as leader of U.S. nuclear deterrence.

To get StratCom refocused on command of the nation's global nuclear arsenal, the task force recommended to Defense Secretary Robert Gates that StratCom shed several missions it's taken on in recent years, including its role as the top U.S. military organization for waging war in cyberspace.

"We believe StratCom is overloaded," James Schlesinger, the former defense secretary who led the task force, said bluntly in a Pentagon press briefing.

StratCom's top leaders don't share the view that the command based at Offutt Air Force Base near Bellevue has more than it can handle. They feel all StratCom's missions — including the critical nuclear one and growing cyber role — are in good hands.

"I can tell you I feel pretty confident with what we're doing," said Navy Vice Adm. Carl V. Mauney, StratCom's deputy commander. "We're not missing anything. We're accomplishing the missions."

But Mauney said he also respects the task force's work as a "no-holds-barred, open and frank" look at how the Defense Department is performing the nuclear mission. Gates will be considering all the issues involved, possibly with input from President Barack Obama.

Any talk of missions leaving Offutt always concerns economic development leaders in Omaha and Bellevue, where the base is a huge economic engine. There are currently about 10,000 military and civilian personnel at the base, about 2,400 of them assigned to StratCom.

But it's too early to tell how the task force's report could affect StratCom's work force, particularly since other recommendations could add some jobs, too.

The task force suggests the Defense Department make sure StratCom has all the manpower needed to adequately lead the nation's nuclear forces. It endorsed a plan by StratCom's commander, Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, to return the nuclear intelligence assets previously shipped out of the headquarters in a 2005 reorganization.

The report also suggests that StratCom be institutionalized as the lead advocate for future nuclear capabilities.

The Pentagon ordered the sweeping review of how the U.S. military performs the nuclear mission in the wake of two blunders by the Air Force in handling nuclear weapons.

In 2007, a bomber mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads flew from North Dakota to Louisiana. Last year, it was learned that four ballistic missile fuses mistakenly were shipped to Taiwan in 2006.

In response, the task force headed by Schlesinger last fall recommended an overhaul of the Air Force's nuclear program, including the creation of a new Air Force nuclear command. Offutt is one of six finalists to be home of that unit.

But last month the task force, with much less fanfare, came out with a second report that looked at how the rest of the military was performing its nuclear mission. The task force concluded that the entire Defense Department, from its top leaders on down, had lost focus due to the end of the Cold War, other conventional conflicts around the globe and the new war on terror.

In fact, Schlesinger traces the Air Force's recent nuclear problems to the 1991 Pentagon decision to break up the Strategic Air Command, which for decades had run the Air Force's nuclear operations from Offutt.

With the dissolution of SAC, missile wings were put under the Air Force Space Command and became a small part of that organization's duties. Nuclear bombers joined conventional bomber wings. The changes led to morale problems among Air Force nuclear personnel because there was a perception that their work wasn't important.

One of the new report's chief recommendations was that the Pentagon create a new assistant secretary of defense position devoted to deterrence.

But the report also cited problems at StratCom, which succeeded SAC in commanding Air Force and Navy nuclear forces.

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon broadly expanded StratCom's mission set, including space, computer network war, missile defense and the ability to strike with conventional weapons anywhere around the globe, among others.

The new missions took a "significant toll" on StratCom's ability to focus on the nuclear mission, the report said, summing it up with one stark anecdote:

Before 2002, the senior StratCom leader with undivided daily focus on the nuclear mission was a four-star general or Navy admiral. But until recently, the most senior StratCom officer with an entirely nuclear focus was an Air Force colonel — a four-step drop in rank.

Schlesinger said in his Jan. 8 Pentagon briefing that the task force intentionally tread lightly on the delicate subject of which missions it thinks StratCom should shed, instead listing the missions it should keep. But missing from that list is cyberwarfare, along with StratCom's oversight roles in information operations, communications and intelligence.

"It's not that StratCom is not a very capable combatant command," Schlesinger said. "The problem is, we've proliferated the number of missions . . . over the last number of years."

In an interview, Mauney did not dispute many of the task force's facts and conclusions. In fact, Mauney said, when Chilton arrived at StratCom in 2007— a month after the Air Force's North Dakota mistake and well before the recent review — he saw shortcomings in the organization and launched an effort to strengthen the nuclear mission.

"Gen. Chilton quickly realized the lesson there was focus," Mauney said of the Air Force incident. And while the criticism was not pointed at StratCom, he said, "we're not beyond learning lessons."

Among many changes Chilton made was naming a council of StratCom senior leaders, headed by Mauney, to take a more active nuclear oversight role, and designating a one-star general to head StratCom's day-to-day nuclear operations.

Chilton also concluded he didn't have enough intelligence assets in the headquarters and is setting up a new intelligence operations center to serve all StratCom missions, including nuclear.

While StratCom does have many missions, Chilton has prioritized the three in which StratCom not only has oversight but also operational control: nuclear, space and cyber.

And the work is getting done, Mauney said. He senses no lack of morale today among those performing the nuclear mission.

StratCom leaders have been getting out to operational nuclear bases to emphasize the importance of the work. Both Chilton and Mauney are visiting submarine bases this month to mark the 1,000th mission of the nation's Trident fleet.

Mauney, a former nuclear submarine officer himself, said he has great confidence in the soldiers and sailors performing the nuclear mission — at StratCom and around the world.

"They are focused and believe in the mission, and appreciate the attention it's getting now," he said. "There is an awareness and understanding that this is a mission that requires the highest standards for our nation."


• Contact the writer: 444-1130, henry.cordes@owh.com