USAF Eyes Larger Say in Nuclear Enterprise

WASHINGTON — The US Air Force is pushing to reassert itself as a major voice in discussions about America's nuclear strategy, the service's top officer said on Thursday.

Rand was confirmed March 27 to succeed Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson as the head of Global Strike Command. Welsh praised Wilson, who is slated to become the deputy at US Strategic Command, for his work at Global Strike, but said having the fourth star at the table during discussions gives the service greater heft.

"Having a four-star in that position allows us to step into that discussion, where having a three star could be difficult at times," Welsh said. "So the idea, as I told Robin Rand, was go become the next Curtis LeMay. Bring this nuclear mission, no kidding, back to the front edge of Air Force attention every single day."

Rand was considered something of an odd choice to take over from Wilson, given his lack of experience in the nuclear enterprise. A command pilot with more than 5,000 hours in the F-16, T-38 and T-37, Rand took over at AETC in 2013. During his time there he focused on reorganizing how education is handled for the service, changes that are slowly being implemented around the service.

Welsh took aim at those concerns with his speech, saying he picked Rand for a very specific reason.

"Some criticism has been brought because of his lack of a nuclear background," Welsh said of Rand. "I'll tell you this — I don't think the nuclear background is the most important thing for the first four-star going up to Global Strike Command. I think leadership is, and there isn't a better leader in our Air Force than Robin Rand."

Later on in the speech, Welsh elaborated on his concerns about the service's voice at the table, acknowledging that in the last 15 years a number of factors — be they a lack of knowledge, experts living outside Washington or other distractions — have combined to the point where the service "kind of slowly slid out of the picture" on the nuclear discussion.

Notably, Welsh's comments on the need to maintain a strong voice on nuclear issues comes as the service is gearing up to award a contract on its next-generation bomber sometime this summer.

Members of Congress are already raising concern about potential cost overruns on the program, and outside analysts have said the service needs to lay out the case for the bomber in the current budget environment.

The head of Global Strike Command "should be a part of the senior strategic leadership on this [issue], and if they are, we get a very different picture of the Air Force involvement and the Air Force role in that than if they're not, and I think that's the key," Welsh said.

"We have the ability to influence those discussions," he added. "We have not done that, in my opinion, to the level we need to do that in the future. That's what the four-star does."

Email: amehta@defensenews.com

Twitter: @AaronMehta

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