Air Force Cheating Scandal: Are Nuclear Missiles Overseen By Unqualified Officers?
Thirty-four Air Force launch officers overseeing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles have had their security clearances suspended after being implicated in a cheating scandal surrounding routine proficiency tests.
The cheating scandal and suspensions of dozens of personnel charged with overseeing 450 Minuteman III land-based nuclear missiles comes in the wake of an investigation into the possession of illegal drugs, according to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. She said the alleged cheating occurred at the Global Strike Command at Malmstrom Air Force base in Montana between August and September of 2013, involving officers ranking from second lieutenant to captain. James was quick to characterize the cheating scandal as the actions of individuals.
“This was a failure of some of our Airmen,” James said Thursday via American Forces Press Service. “It was not a failure of the nuclear mission.”
As a result, the Air Force plans to re-test the entire ICBM force.
The cheating scandal is the latest black mark on the Air Force’s ICBM program; in October, Air Force Major General Michael Carey, the head of the ICBM force, was fired for his drunken conduct and fraternizing with women as part of a government delegation to Moscow for talks on nuclear security last summer.
Of the 34 officers, evidence arose that one launch officer shared the answer to a monthly proficiency test. Sixteen officers are known to have cheated while the remaining 17 admitted to being aware that the cheating took place. Two were involved with the drug investigation that brought the cheating scandal to light.
According to reports, 100 officers had already completed the re-test. James described that as 20 percent of the missile force crew and said that 97 of those 100 passed. While James maintains that the United States’ nuclear arsenal is secure, the fact that 3 percent of the ICBM force failed—the same percentage of those determined to have cheated—is disconcerting. CNN reports that there are 190 Air Force officers overseeing the weapons at Malmstrom, meaning the scandal has touched 18 percent of them.
“There simply is no room in our Air Force, and certainly in our nuclear enterprise, for this type of misconduct,” said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. via ABC News.
Udall, the chairman of Armed Services’ strategic forces subcommittee, called on Air Force leaders to “redouble their efforts to investigate these allegations and ensure the integrity of this critical mission.”
What do you think about the Air Force cheating scandal? Does it make you feel secure about our nation’s nuclear arsenal? What should happen to those 34 officers involved in the cheating scandal?
