Air Force disciplines 15 officers in nuclear mishap

Air Force leaders on Thursday announced they had taken administrative action against 15 officers for their role in the shipment of four intercontinental ballistic missile nose-cone fuse assemblies to Taiwan in August 2006.

The mistaken shipment, which was only discovered earlier this year, was sent in response to an order for helicopter batteries, raising serious questions about how well the military is tracking and handling sensitive nuclear-related materiel.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates initiated an investigation into the matter, which led him to fire the top civilian and military Air Force leaders. He later named Michael Donley as acting secretary and Gen. Norton Schwartz as chief of staff, and in July ordered the two leaders to review the investigation to determine appropriate disciplinary actions against officers implicated in the report.

At a Pentagon briefing on Thursday afternoon, Donley and Schwartz said the punishments were necessary to restore accountability to the service's nuclear mission. Some officers have been removed from command or reassigned to other duties, essentially ending their careers. Air Force leaders asked other officers to remain in service to "be part of the solution," Donley said.

"These actions are administrative in nature but can carry with them substantial consequences for the careers of these officers, including their potential to command, to be promoted, or to retire in their current grade," he said. "We recognize the years of dedicated service that these officers have given, but we cannot ignore the breaches of trust that have occurred on their watch."

Among the generals sanctioned, Lt. Gen. Kevin Sullivan, deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, received the most serious punishment -- a letter of reprimand. The letter said he failed to adequately address logistics policy deficiencies and take action to correct previously identified systemic problems in ICBM logistics. Sullivan also was cited for poor oversight while serving as commander of Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Letters of reprimand are typically career-ending events. According to the Air Force, Sullivan has requested retirement.

Five other generals received letters of admonishment:

Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, for failing to effectively exercise responsibility for ICBM system sustainment and for not correcting recurring deficiencies in engineering support of ICBM components while serving as commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center. Hamel had previously requested retirement.

Maj. Gen. Roger Burg, commander of 20th Air Force, for failing to exercise effective oversight of ICBM sustainment-related activities and for not identifying and correcting deficiencies in shipping and receiving sensitive components. Burg will remain in command to continue corrective actions he started.

Maj. Gen. Kathleen Close, commander of the Ogden Air Logistics Center, for not exercising effective command oversight of depot maintenance, engineering activities and materiel control of sensitive components; for not recognizing systemic weaknesses in supply chain management; and for failing to correct previously identified deficiencies. She also will remain in command.

Brig. Gen. Francis Bruno, for failure to identify and correct weaknesses in logistics management and maintenance support for ICBM components and for not correcting previously identified problems at the service's air logistics centers when he served as director of logistics for Air Force Materiel Command. He will retire Oct. 1.

Brig. Gen. Arthur Cameron III was admonished for not identifying and correcting problems in depot maintenance operations involving sensitive components, and for failing to correct previously identified discrepancies in materiel control and maintenance when he served as commander of the 309th Maintenance Wing at Ogden Air Logistics Center. He received a routine reassignment before any personnel actions were initiated.

In addition, five colonels received letters of reprimand for poor command oversight. All were commanders of units that contributed to the improper shipment to Taiwan, or units with deficient performance. Two have been removed from command, one of whom is retiring. The three other officers, who left their commands earlier, will remain in their current positions.

Three colonels, all commanders, received letters of admonishment. One was removed from command. Another was allowed to continue in command. The third was reassigned in a normal tour rotation and will remain in his new assignment.

The final colonel to be disciplined received a letter of counseling for failing to exercise effective command oversight in a unit not involved in the Taiwan incident.

"In holding these officers accountable we considered the needs of the Air Force," said Donley. Because some had vital knowledge and because "their ability to serve has not been compromised," they were asked to stay on and help restore accountability in the nuclear mission, he said.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, "The disciplinary actions announced today are regrettable, but are necessary to address recent leadership failures. The Air Force must now focus on improving its security culture to ensure that such incidents do not happen again."

USAF to strengthen inspections and expand training for nuclear mission

USAF say thank,
But, NO WAY !

USAF goofing up again !

For background see:
Five Generals To Be Disciplined Over Nukes

Air Force leaders have delayed making commitments to far-reaching organizational changes recommended by a task force on nuclear weapons management, but have agreed to a number of narrower reforms.

During a Sept. 18 summit at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, key leaders from the Air Force, other Defense Department agencies, the National Security Council, the Energy Department and RAND Corp., discussed ways to improve stewardship of nuclear weapons. Air Force officials agreed to consider a proposal for a significant reorganization at a meeting of senior service leaders in early October.

In a report earlier this month, the Defense Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management, chaired by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, urged the Air Force to replace its Space Command with a Strategic Command, vested with authority and accountability for the nuclear mission. In addition, the report recommended all bomber aircraft be consolidated into a single force assigned to the Strategic Command.

As the single major command responsible for the nuclear mission, Strategic Command would advocate for resources, provide clear lines of authority and accountability, and ensure appropriate staffing and expertise at all levels of the nuclear mission, Schlesinger said at a Pentagon briefing earlier this month. The bomber force assigned to the command would provide trained forces for conventional missions as well as manage the nuclear deterrent mission.

USAF Capt. Michael Andrews said service leaders would talk about those changes during a three-day October conference at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio that will include the service's four-star generals and acting secretary Michael Donley.

But, in a statement released over the weekend, the Air Force outlined four reforms agreed upon at last week's summit:

The Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., will be expanded and given responsibility for all nuclear sustainment activities, including those at weapons storage areas in the continental United States. This change is intended to clarify ambiguity in the chain of command.

The nuclear inspection process will be strengthened and centralized, built upon common policies and procedures integrated with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Service leaders will consolidate and expand training within the Air Education and Training Command for security personnel assigned to nuclear duties.

A new headquarters office will provide singular focus on nuclear matters within the service.

The Schlesinger task force was highly critical of the Air Force nuclear inspection program. "Processes are not standardized across major commands, inspectors are not appropriately trained, and inspections are not sufficiently comprehensive and frequent," the report noted.

The task force was especially critical of the fact that inspections were pre-announced, creating little incentive for personnel to remain vigilant around the clock.

As a result of that criticism, the Air Force inspector general now is rewriting regulations to require all commands to conduct no-notice nuclear inspections," Andrews said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates created the Schlesinger task force in June to review Air Force lapses in nuclear weapons management, as well as the other military services' nuclear inventory control procedures.

The review was sparked by the discovery earlier this year that forward-section assemblies used on Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles were erroneously shipped to Taiwan in October and November 2006. That discovery followed another serious incident in which an Air Force bomber crew mistakenly flew nuclear weapons from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana in August 2007.

The Schlesinger task force found, "There has been an unambiguous, dramatic and unacceptable decline in the Air Force's commitment to perform the nuclear mission and, until very recently, little has been done to reverse it."

That erosion of capability and apparent disinterest in addressing it led Gates to fire the Air Force chief of staff and secretary in June. Current Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and acting Secretary Michael Donley have repeatedly said their top priority is to rebuild the service's nuclear expertise and accountability.

In July, the Air Force established its own nuclear task force, made up of about 30 subject matter specialists from across the service's nuclear enterprise. That task force is currently tracking more than 180 corrective actions and analyzing causes of the problems.

USAF goofing up again ! Five Generals To Be Disciplined Over Nukes

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will announce a range of punishments for at least five general officers and possibly several colonels for lapses connected with the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Several senior Air Force generals declined to comment about the disciplinary actions this afternoon at the Air Force Association’s annual conference. All the officers are reported to be from the Air Force.

A congressional aide confirmed the Defense Department told lawmakers yesterday about the impending disciplinary actions. The aide did not know the names of those to be punished. Sources declined to identify them until the punishments were officially announced.

A report by Navy Adm. Kirkland H. Donald, director of naval nuclear propulsion, into the nuclear enterprise detailed a loss of oversight from senior Air Force leaders and lowered performance related to the nuclear mission.

Gates had to intervene personally and ordered Donald’s review after sensitive nuclear parts were sent mistakenly to Taiwan and a B-52 bomber flew across the country carrying six armed nuclear cruise missiles.

Last week, a panel of august experts led by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger said they had been surprised by the erosion of controls over nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War and recommended that Air Force Space Command be folded into a new Air Force Strategic Command and urged a range of other measures to ensure airmen dealing with nukes “feel they are part of an important mission.”

Bringing back something like Strategic Air Command is the biggest organizational and functional change recommended by the Task Force on DoD Nuclear Weapons management, which was created by Defense Secretary Gates after several high profile cock-ups involving nuclear weapons or their components.

The creation of Space Command has meant that space had attracted “some of the glamour” and left missileers feeling like second tier players. Schlesinger noted that most officers, if they wanted promotions and a decent career path, had to become space qualified and stay in that slot. “Some of the glamour will now move back to the nuclear mission,” he said.

The panel also recommended adding about 2,000 people to the ranks of those Air Force personnel who deal with nuclear matters, Schlesinger told reporters. They also want a single bomber numbered air force created that is responsible for the traditional service responsibilities of organizing, training and equipping. It would be assigned to the new Air Force Strategic Command.

One of the panel’s main goals, aside from the primary goal of restoring a special sense of mission to those in the Air Force who deal with nuclear matters, is to restore confidence among America’s allies that the US nuclear deterrence means something and is reliable. Schlesinger said he thought restoring this confidence would take six months to a year.

China in Cyberspace

China in Cyberspace
By Bob Brewin

Last September, Huawei Technologies, a network equipment manufacturer headed by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in China's People's Liberation Army, cut a deal with Bain Capital to acquire an interest in 3Com, which among other things, makes network hardware and software that's widely used by the Defense Department and other federal agencies.

This includes, according to 3Com, Voice over Internet Protocol systems deployed by the Defense Information Systems Agency and the Social Security Administration. 3Com also sells software that detects network attacks to the government.

In addition, the company has provided local area network hardware used in the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, a network that operates at the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level.

Considering the security implications of a Chinese company acquiring even a passive interest in 3Com, members of Congress viewed the takeover with alarm. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, called it a "stealth assault on America's national security."

Last month, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the committee's ranking Republican, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saying there was a "growing apprehension in the Congress" about the security implications of the transaction. Paulson chairs the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which examines the national security implications of such investments.

Shortly after Dingell and Barton raised their concerns, Xu Zhijun, chief marketing officer at Huawei Technologies, told the Financial Times that the views on the deal expressed by some U.S. lawmakers were "bullshit." Huawei, he said, only intended to take a 16.5 per cent investment in 3Com.

Zhijun's blast wasn't exactly well-timed. Last week, the Pentagon released a report concluding -- surprise -- that a series of attacks against U.S. government networks appear to emanate from China.

I wonder if these attacks were discovered by 3Com intrusiondetection software?

The Pentagon noted in its report that Huawei is one of a group of Chinese IT companies that serve both military and commercial users in the country. The report said such companies have "close commercial ties with the [People's Liberation Army] and collaborate [with the PLA] on research and development."

Zhijun tried to deflect criticism of the 3Com deal by telling the Financial Times that China is a big customer for network gear made by Cisco, so maybe the Chinese should worry about that company and its software. "Cisco is everywhere within China," he said. "Who should be more concerned?"

Zhijun has a good point. If Cisco gear is all over China, does this mean it could be used to mount attacks against U.S. networks? I posed this question to a Cisco representative, but have not heard back from her.

Marlboro, Not Marlborough

3Com is headquartered in what is now known as Marlborough, Mass. But when my grandfather built a summer lake cottage there in the early 1900s, it was known simply as Marlboro, an appellation gussied up to the tonier name sometime in the early 1980s.

Though Marlboro now is replete with tech and IT companies, it ironically was the home of the last operator-based telephone exchange in New England, which finally converted to dial tone in the late 1960s.

I spent my summers in Marlboro with a bevy of aunts, uncles and cousins, and always marveled at the ease of use of that system -- you just picked up the phone, told the operator who you wanted to talk with, and she connected the call without even asking for a number.

You can't do that with an iPhone.

Hey, Let's Track Supplies Over a 49-Percent Chinese-Owned Network

This may sound loopy now that the Pentagon has all but pinned a series of cyberattacks on China, but it's true.

Last June, I wrote an article that detailed plans by the Army's Program Manager, Joint-Automatic Identification Technology to use a radio frequency identification network in Pakistan partially owned by a Chinese company to track supplies shipped from ports in Pakistan to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

That RFID network is owned and operated by Savi Networks LLC, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin subsidiary Savi Technology and Hutchinson Port Holdings, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited of Hong Kong, controlled by Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing. Savi Technology owns 51 per cent of Savi Networks and Hutchison 49 per cent, according to a 2005 press release from the partnership.

Considering the sensitivity of logistics and supply chain data -- we all know generals win battles and logisticians win wars, right? -- Air Force Maj. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told me last June that Defense "is still assessing whether to utilize a commercial solution for Pakistan ... in accordance with DoD information assurance policy."

Last December, Ryder sent me an e-mail saying that Defense had decided to use the RFID network after a risk assessment conducted the Army's Information Assurance Security Engineering Directorate concluded that "DoD's use of Savi Technology's commercial RFID reader network in Pakistan does not increase the operational risk to U.S. forces or the [Global Information Grid]."

This statement did not address the fact that the network in Pakistan is not operated by Savi Technology, but Savi Networks, and so flummoxed me I did nothing with it until now.

I have a new query in to Ryder asking if Defense intends to continue to use this network considering that China now appears to be very busy doing bad things to us in cyberspace, and Ryder said he is working on it. Mark Nelson, a Savi Technology spokesman, said he would get back to me this week with a response.

Good News: The Air Force Is Ready to Fight the Cyber War

New threats mean new organizations -- and even better, new funding. So the Air Force has been positioning itself during the past year to manage and run the cyber war.

Until recently, Air Force leaders have relied on speeches and briefings to try to make sure the service gains the lead role in cyberspace. But last week, I stumbled over a very slick Air Force video that takes this approach to a new level. "It takes cyber dominance to defend America in a changing world," the ad says, plugging a new "elite" Air Force organization that "defends us from millions of cyber threats every day."

Cue the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder."

The Space Race

The Pentagon's China report also singled out the country as a new and potent adversary in space, with the ability to attack satellites.

Gen. Robert Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, recently told the Strategic Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee that unnamed adversaries are "actively pursuing" space dominance. U.S. space efforts, he said, face a range of threats, including jamming of radio frequencies and the Global Positioning System, as well as anti-satellite attacks and laser blinding of sensor systems.

The good news is the Air Force also has produced a slick video ad informing viewers that the service has the space dominance thing down.