In addition to policy and procedural changes to the Air Force’s nuclear security posture, the head of USAF’s Blue Ribbon Review into the August 2007 Bent Spear told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that the Air Force needs to recapitalize the service’s nuclear systems and support equipment. Maj. Gen. Polly Peyer, director of resource integration on the Air Staff, told the panel that the BRR offers specific areas where resources could be applied to enhance nuclear surety. Some of these areas are addressed in the nearly $100 million worth of requests for equipment included in the service’s Fiscal 2009 unfunded requirements list, she said. They include high security locks for ICBM payload transporters, ICBM cryptography upgrades, a new ICBM payload transporter, nuclear storage structures upgrades, nuclear surety test equipment, powered and non-powered munitions trailers, radiation sensors, and remote visual assessment devices. The service also wants to bolster the Fiscal 2009 request for the Common Vertical Lift Support Platform, the next-generation helicopter that will replace the current Vietnam War-era Huey UH-1Ns that protect the nation’s ICBM fields. Peyer said, as the Air Force builds its Fiscal 2010 program objective memorandum, it also will realign funds where appropriate to support the new equipment. (Read No More Bent Spears)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.