A Grass Roots Approach to the Nuclear Problem

Air Force Global Strike Command released more details on the Force Improvement Program launched after some 92 missileers at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., were implicated in a cheating investigation. The “FIP is an aggressive, action-oriented effort with the goal of making rapid and substantial change to the intercontinental ballistic missile mission,” according to a Feb. 6 release. The study will be conducted by airmen within ICBM career fields, said AFGSC boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson. “I can’t stress this enough; this is a grass roots level effort; from the bottom up. That’s where the solutions are going to come from,” said Wilson in a letter to airmen. There will be a total of five functional cultural working groups—one from each of the following career fields: missile operations, security forces, maintenance, mission support, and helicopter operations, states the release. Each FCWG team will be made up of lower-ranking airmen, junior and senior noncommissioned officers, as well as company-grade officers. They also will be augmented by experts outside the ICBM field, such as Navy submariners, bomber combat systems officers, or members of the 576th Flight Test Squadron and the 381st Training Group at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., states the release. The teams will visit all missile wings this month to determine what challenges exist for airmen in their respective mission areas and will then report directly to Wilson, who will make recommendations to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh.