Excerpt
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Earlier today, the nation’s top defense official said there are systematic problems in the management of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile, adding that without billions of dollars for improvements, the safety and security of the force could be undermined.
Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports.
CHUCK HAGEL, Secretary of Defense: Our nuclear enterprise is foundational to America’s national security and the resources and attention we commit to the nuclear force must reflect that.
MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour): Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the shake-up after two reviews that began in February. They found the country’s aging nuclear infrastructure, including facilities, silos and its nuclear submarine fleet, has decayed markedly and will cost billions of dollars to fix.
CHUCK HAGEL: 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.
MARGARET WARNER: Among other things, the findings revealed equipment problems, including the fact that crews maintaining the nation’s 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles shared a single specialized wrench that’s been shipped from base to base, and blast doors atop 60-year-old silos that no longer seal.
These lapses were attributed to a culture of micromanagement and bureaucracy that left top-level officials unaware of problems and personnel shortages and poor career advancement opportunities in the infrastructure force.
A series of embarrassing incidents led to the reviews. In 2007, six nuclear warheads, still attached to missiles, were flown across the country, in a violation of safety rules. In 2013, the Air Force decertified 17 launch officers in North Dakota for poor performance. And this year, a cheating scandal involving nuclear launch officers erupted at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The head of the nuclear wing there resigned last March, and nine other officers were removed.
In the meantime, the Navy had its own exam cheating scandal involving reactor training instructors.
Today, Hagel said the Pentagon took its eye off the ball in recent years, and has to act quickly.
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