Various
news reports declare that the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., has failed its just-completed Nuclear Surety Inspection. Wired magazine’s Danger Room blog first reported the news, saying in a Dec. 15 update that USAF had confirmed the unit’s “unsatisfactory” rating. In response to query by the Daily Report, Air Force Space Command said the 90th MW had “deficiencies in several areas,” but the unit “remains certified to perform its strategic mission.” Air Force officials say the service has made recent NSIs and related inspections more stringent than those run in recent years as one consequence of the nuclear enterprise problems that led to the ouster this summer of the service’s previous top two leaders. So far, two other nuclear-mission units—the missile wing at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., and the bomb wing at Minot AFB, N.D.—also failed recent initial NSI reviews. Malmstrom’s 341st MW still faces a re-test, while Minot’s 5th Bomb Wing has already passed its week-long reinspection. When USAF inactivated Strategic Air Command in 1992, it divided up its nuclear enterprise, placing the ICBM force under AFSPC and the nuclear-capable bombers under Air Combat Command. As part of its new nuclear roadmap, the Air Force plans to establish a new major command to reassemble all its nuclear-capable units under one command, to be named Global Strike Command with its headquarters temporarily located at Bolling AFB, D.C.
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.