Not so fast, cried Nebraska’s congressional representatives. Both of the state’s U.S. senators, Ben Nelson (D) and Mike Johanns (R), along with Rep. Terry Lee (R-NE), are protesting the decision because Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha actually earned the highest score on an Air Force evaluation that served as the key basis for deciding where Global Strike Command should be stationed. Air Force officials told congressional aides that the decision was based on the most important of the six graded criteria: “nuclear mission synergy.” This phrase refers to the bases’ location in proximity to other Air Force nuclear organizations. But there was a problem with this explanation: Offutt earned 32 of 35 points for nuclear mission synergy, while Barksdale scored only 31.

 

The Nebraska delegation is taking the matter up with Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)—the latter because of concerns that politics may have actually been the deciding factor in the decision. The Nebraska representatives did not elaborate specifically on what political motivation Reid might have had to help Barksdale win the new command. Reid’s office has denied the Senate leader got involved.

 

The establishment of Global Strike Command was recommended in a report, “Reinvigorating the Air Force Nuclear Enterprise,” after the service twice got caught allowing nuclear warheads to be moved without authorization. One of those incidents involved an airman at Barksdale air base who discovered that the crew of a B-52 bomber out of Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota had unknowingly transported six nuclear warheads across the country in August 2007.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Global Strike Command: Air Force Decision Angers Senators (by Joseph Morton, Omaha World-Herald)

Barksdale to Host Global Strike Command (by Michael Hoffman, Air Force Times)

Reinvigorating the Air Force Nuclear Enterprise (US Air Force) (PDF)