Senior Air Force officials yesterday declined to list any initial findings of a pair of Pentagon-directed reviews in the wake of a cheating scandal, but outlined an additional initiative being undertaken dubbed the “force improvement program.” Following the scandal involving cheating by 92 airmen year on a proficiency exam at Malmstrom Air Force base, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered two reviews last month—one by nuclear commanders due within 60 days and another by an independent group of experts due within 90 days. “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 yesterday 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.”
Meanwhile, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James reemphasized that she remains confident in the nuclear mission following 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.”