Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
2/14/2014

The Air Force is launching a new effort, dubbed the “force improvement program,” in the wake of a cheating scandal involving officers that work with the nation’s ICBMs. The new effort comes as two reviews are underway that were launched by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last month in response to the scandal that involved cheating by 92 airmen on a proficiency exam at Malmstrom Air Force Base. “I can’t give any new information in terms of the ongoing command-directed investigations. In terms of the force improvement program, it’s starting today. It’s kicked off and they are heading to Minot Air Force base as we speak,” Air Force Global Strike Command Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson said this week at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.

Wilson outlined the goals of the new program. “This force improvement program is utilizing a different approach from things we’ve done in the past,” he said. “Instead of a top-down directed approach this is a bottom-up grassroots level effort from which we are going to initiate this. We are going to look across all of the different disciplines in our missile fields, so we are going to look at our security forces, our maintenance, our mission support group, our operations as well as our helicopters and how we do business. This is us looking at us, but it is with a twist.”

The review launched this week will involve about 65 people, according to Wilson. “It will touch every aspect of the ICBM mission and I think we’ll have the opportunity to shape that for the next generation,” he said. “I’ve also asked the team to look at how we communicate and then how we develop our leaders in the field. When we look at the culture we are going to determine, do we have an integrity issue, and what are those obstacles that we need to overcome in terms of mission and resources in any of those we may have out there.” He has asked for a briefing from that team at the end of the month.

‘Hoalistic Approach’ Needed, Air Force Sec. Says

In the wake of the scandal, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James visited Air Force bases that perform nuclear work and spoke with officers in large town-hall style meetings and small focus groups. Following her tour, she re- emphasized that she remains confident in the nuclear mission despite the cheating revelations. “I am very convinced that the answer is yes, the nuclear mission is safe and secure,” she said at CSIS. “The reason for this is that one proficiency test does not make or break anything. There are many checks and balances within the system. There are outside inspections that take place regularly. There are simulator experiences that take place continually. So there are many ways that we look at proficiency individually as well as how the teams operate.”
                    
But James this week reiterated that the problem is cultural and not just confined to Malmstrom, listing seven initial conclusions she came to in the weeks following the scandal. “I do think we have some systemic things going on and in order to fix the systemic problem you need a holistic approach. To just go back to the incident of cheating is not adequate,” she said, listing among current issues “spotty” morale. She added, “The need for perfection has created a climate of undue stress and fear among the missile community about their futures. … I heard repeatedly that the system in its totality is very punitive, comes down very hard even in the case of what seem to be minor infractions, but it is not equally rewarding and incentivized for good behavior and good developments.”

Another problem is the way test scores are used, James said, noting that even though a passing grade on the test is a 90 percent, airmen felt pressure to attain higher scores because they had a significant impact on promotions. “I found that the missile leaders felt driven to score 100 percent all the time, and this is because the commanders were using the test scores as the top differentiator or the sole differentiator in this community as to who would get promoted or not. So to me a huge irony in this whole situation is that these missile leaders who cheated probably didn’t even cheat to meet the standard or to pass,” she said. She added, “I don’t think it is the right way to measure people and I would like to see us move to a whole person concept, looking at the entirety of a person’s record and performance on how we then decide on promotions.”

Triad Will Be Needed ‘Next 50 Years’

This week, James also said she expects the nuclear triad will be needed for deterrence in the next 50 years. “I think we need a triad. It’s worked very well for us over the past 50 years. We need it for the next 50 years, and probably beyond that as well. It’s not duplicative, but complimentary for various reasons I’ve said,” she said. She also said, “I would argue that as the numbers decline the importance of the triad’s diverse and complimentary attributes will be on the rise. So as long as there are countries around the globe that possess these weapons or countries that are trying to develop these weapons, no mission will be more important than maintaining nuclear deterrence.”