Chin up kids -- Strategic Air Command's back!
Eh, kind of:
The Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management recommended the Air Force put all its nuclear missions under Air Force Space Command and call the whole thing Air Force Strategic Command.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates organized the task force which was headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger after axing the Air Forces top two leaders last June due to its nuclear problems.
The recommendations Schlesinger announced Friday at the Pentagon also would mean that Air Combat Command would lose its nuclear bomber mission.
The task force recommended assigning a group of bombers to a numbered Air Force that would fall under AFSTRAT and have a sole nuclear mission.
Solid. And just in time to meet the challenges of a newly aggressive Russia!
The big changes, as I see them, call for (1) Air Force Space Command to morph into Air Force Strategic Command (2) New billets and career opportunities for the long-neglected nuclear officer (3) Shifting the entire bomber force into Strategic Command.
That's the largest organizational shake up since the much-lamented days of Merrill McPeak. The times, they are a-changing. Or -depending on how far Putin plans to take Russia's nuclear revitalization- could be returning to the old status quo.
