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Pentagon shaking up nuke cadre

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, accompanied by U.S. Strategic Command Commander Adm. Cecil Haney, center, and Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michelle Howard, speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon on Friday. (Associated Press)
Robert Burns And Lolita C. Baldor Associated Press

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. – The Pentagon will spend an additional $10 billion to correct deep problems of neglect and mismanagement within the nation’s nuclear forces, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declared Friday, pledging firm action to support the men and women who handle the world’s most powerful and deadly weapons.

Hagel ordered top-to-bottom changes in the nuclear arsenal’s management, which he said had been allowed over the years to backslide, afflicted by broken and missing equipment, poor leadership and inadequate training and staffing.

Hagel told a Pentagon news conference Friday morning – before flying to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota where many of the nuclear force troubles began – that the Defense Department will boost spending on the nuclear forces by about 10 percent a year for the next five years, saying there is no problem on this issue the Pentagon can’t fix. That would be a total increase of about $10 billion over the five years. Currently the Pentagon spends about $15 billion a year on the nuclear mission.

“The internal and external reviews I ordered show that a consistent lack of investment and support for our nuclear forces over far too many years has left us with too little margin to cope with mounting stresses,” said Hagel, who was flanked by senior Air Force and Navy officers. “The root cause has been a lack of sustained focus, attention and resources, resulting in a pervasive sense that a career in the nuclear enterprise offers too few opportunities for growth and advancement.”

Hagel received briefings at Minot and then delivered a pep talk to a few hundred nuclear bomber and missile force members. Urging them to take pride in their jobs – an allusion to concern about lagging morale – he told the airmen, “You are an indispensable element of our national security.”

Hagel ordered two reviews in February – one by Pentagon officials and a second by outside experts – as a result of a series of Associated Press stories that revealed lapses in leadership, morale, safety and security at the nation’s three nuclear Air Force bases.

The good news, Hagel said, “is there has been no nuclear exchange in the world.” The head of his Strategic Command, Navy Adm. Cecil Haney, also noted the nuclear force has been operating securely.

“You don’t see the mushroom cloud or that sort of thing. We must continue that,” he told reporters.