Air Force Global Strike Command surveyed airmen across its three missile wings and will adopt 98 percent of the more than 300 recommendations made through the command’s Force Improvement Program, officials announced May 28. Air Force leadership initiated the effort following a cheating scandal that revealed widespread career malaise across the ICBM force and is pushing ahead reforms in three key areas—inspections, leadership development, and personnel reliability program. AFGSC is changing the missileer career structure to allow new missileers to “focus on mastering the weapons system” before being evaluated at the same level as an experienced crew commander or instructor. “Training now focuses on providing learning opportunities … and the instruction is tailored to the experience level of each crew,” said AFGSC boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson in a statement. “Evaluation has shifted to a recurring 15-to-18-month cycle, similar to the aviation community,” increasing the emphasis on daily operations instead of looming evaluations. The command is also reworking the personnel reliability program, which gauges crew’s personal mission suitability to presumed ready state, instead of presumed “down,” according to the release.
Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.