'Neglected' US nuclear forces to get $10-billion fix
Plaguedby years of neglect since end of cold war, atomic bomb arsenal, personnel to get US$10 billion more over five years, US defence chief says
The United States is to spend US$10 billion to sort out deep problems of neglect and mismanagement within the nation's cold-war nuclear forces, which have become so bad that crews in three different states were forced to share just one toolbox.
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered top-to-bottom changes in the nuclear arsenal's management, which he said had been allowed over the years to backslide, afflicted by broken and missing equipment, poor leadership and inadequate training and staffing.
Hagel told a Pentagon news conference last week that the Defence Department would boost spending on the nuclear forces by about 10 per cent a year for the next five years, saying there was no problem on this issue that the Pentagon could not fix.
That would be a total increase of about US$10 billion over the five years. Currently, the Pentagon spends about US$15 billion a year on the nuclear mission.
"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," Hagel said.
"The root cause has been a lack of sustained focus, attention and resources, resulting in a pervasive sense that a career in the nuclear enterprise offers too few opportunities for growth and advancement."
Hagel ordered two reviews last February - one by Pentagon officials and a second by outside experts - as a result of a series of Associated Press stories that revealed lapses in leadership, morale, safety and security at the US' three nuclear air-force bases.