Posted on 06/20/2010 9:28:26 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
For nearly 50 years, Strategic Air Command maintained an unsparing, no-nonsense operational culture. After the Air Force disestablished the legendary SAC at the end of the Cold War, however, USAF’s nuclear element slowly drifted away from that exacting standard.
It was a mistake, as everyone now will readily, almost compulsively, concede. That certainly goes for Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz, the officer chosen to head USAF’s new Global Strike Command.
“If there is one unchanging, immutable truth” about the nuclear arsenal, said Klotz, “it is that it demands constant and undivided attention.”
That didn’t carry on in the post-SAC years, and, as a result, the service committed a number of serious arms-related blunders. “The focus on existing standards had atrophied over the years,” said Brig. Gen. Everett H. Thomas, commander of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M.
Beginning in 1992, the nuclear mission was divided between Air Combat Command and Air Force Space Command. In many ways, it became secondary in competitions for attention, resources, and prestige.
Now, the SAC outlook is coming back—because that’s the way things need to be when dealing with the most powerful weapons on Earth. The creation of Global Strike Command, with a singular focus on the nuclear enterprise, is designed to underline that. “It became clear” that nuclear and conventional missions were “out of balance,” Klotz said. Strike Command is to put them back into balance.
Col. Ferdinand B. Stoss III, commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot AFB, N.D., noted that the loss of focus was a change in culture that “took time, and it will take time to build it back.”
(Excerpt) Read more at airforce-magazine.com ...
Ping
Me Want SAC Back!...
Me Too.
>>> Now, the SAC outlook is coming back—because that’s the way things need to be when dealing with the most powerful weapons on Earth. The creation of Global Strike Command
Hadn’t really thought about it before but I wonder why if the goal is to restore the SAC outlook, the new command was a new organization. A restored SAC would have the desired historical and cultural outlook ingrained from the start.
Back when I came in the service, we kept saying “SAC will be back...”
Glad to see we were right
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