ready. – b.e.
The Defense Department’s nuclear budget military planning will takes center stage Thursday on Capitol Hill, later this week for the first time, following a year of reform and initiatives new plans to address morale issues across the Air Force’s nuclear community.
Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and Brian McKeon, the principal undersecretary of defense for policy, will testify before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday. The committee is expected to discuss address the military’s response to the methods to address a nuclear community that was rocked by cheating and morale scandals and morale issues in the Air Force nuclear community.
Those problems morale issues prompted Air Force Global Strike Command to implement the Force Improvement Program, a bottom-up review that included input from airmen of all career fields and ranks levels within the command. The review program has prompted dozens of reforms changes, ranging from revamping the testing and training methods of missileers to new equipment for security forces.
The Air Force has budgeted $350 million for upgrades and other programs for the nuclear community over the next five years, in addition to other long-term plans
for its forcesuch as modernizing and eventually replacing
itsand developing the next-generation long-range strike bomber.
The Defense Department’s fiscal 2016 budget proposal calls for a total of 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles in its nuclear force, along with 96 operational bombers and 14 fleet ballistic missile submarines to keep the nuclear triad consistent with over previous years, and in line with requirements under the New START treaty.
