p, .The overall health of the Minuteman III missile force and the morale of its crews are “exceedingly good,” said Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak, who oversees strategic deterrence and nuclear integration matters on the Air Staff. However “that doesn’t mean we don’t continue to look into” ways to improve, he said during a June 7 Capitol Hill speech. Harencak was responding to a question on the recently released Defense Science Board study (see below) that examined the Air Force’s nuclear enterprise. Harencak said the Air Force is addressing the board’s recommendations. One in particular, he mentioned, deals with the Personnel Reliability Program. “[It] has become overly bureaucratic,” he said, adding that it had become very resource dependent. ‘People want to pass inspections and do such a great job that they’ve added so many layers of oversight that it has made it quite a burden on our [missile and bomber] wings and units,” said Harencak. He said his office would be presenting options for acting on the DSB’s recommendations to the Air Force and Pentagon leadership in a couple of weeks. AFA, the National Defense Industrial Association, and Reserve Officers Association sponsored Harencak’s talk. (See also Getting Back on Track.)
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
