Pentagon Moves More Communications Gear into Cheyenne Mountain

The Pentagon is beefing up its communications setup inside a hollowed-out section of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains less than a decade after it had largely abandoned the site.

The gear is being moved into Cheyenne Mountain to protect it from electromagnetic pulses, said Adm. William Gortney, commander of U.S. Northern Command and NORAD.

A worsening morale crisis

So goes the nation when the will of the military has been broken. This is the culmination of decimating purges and cuts from the Obama administration. The hammer of the world (see also HERE) and most powerful nation, that the world has ever seen, is being systematically destroyed from within and a new chapter in world history is about to be formed — one without America.

 

 

Chapter 1 – A Worsening Crisis

After 13 years of war, troops feel burned out and without a sense of mission. More doubt their leaders and their job security.

For many of the war-weary troops who deployed to combat zones over and over again for 13 years, the end of an era of war in Iraq and Afghanistan is good news.

But for Marine Sgt. Zack Cantu and other service members, it’s a total morale killer. For many of them, particularly the young grunts and others in combat arms specialties, it’s the realization that they may never go into battle for their country and their comrades.

Hagel’s Fate Was Sealed Long Ago

With only two years left in power and nothing to lose, the Obama administration needs all opposition cleared to permanently transform the country. By the time 2017 comes around, you won’t recognize it.

 

To the surprise of many, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel resigned his post Monday, apparently under heavy pressure. According to some accounts, this development has been brewing for weeks. In reality, it was presaged nearly two years ago in the former Army sergeant and Nebraska Senator’s farcical confirmation hearings before his one-time colleagues.

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Before leaving for my present position last August, I spent six years at the Atlantic Council, where Hagel served ably as chairman until taking over the Defense Department. His predecessor, General Jim Jones, had been picked to join Obama’s “team of rivals” as National Security Advisor. Both men were highly accomplished public servants, widely respected by Republicans and Democrats alike for their competence, intellect, and integrity. Indeed, Jones may very well have been selected as National Security Advisor or another prominent role had John McCain prevailed in 2008. (Interestingly, Hagel was followed by Jon Huntsman, the erstwhile Republican governor or Utah and presidential candidate who’d alienated his base by serving as Obama’s ambassador to China.)

Hagel Said to Be Stepping Down as Defense Chief Under Pressure

The purge continues.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure, the first cabinet-level casualty of the collapse of President Obama’s Democratic majority in the Senate and the struggles of his national security team amid an onslaught of global crises.

The president, who is expected to announce Mr. Hagel’s resignation in a Rose Garden appearance on Monday, made the decision to ask his defense secretary — the sole Republican on his national security team — to step down last Friday after a series of meetings over the past two weeks, senior administration officials said.

The officials described Mr. Obama’s decision to remove Mr. Hagel, 68, as a recognition that the threat from the Islamic State would require a different kind of skills than those that Mr. Hagel was brought on to employ. A Republican with military experience who was skeptical about the Iraq war, Mr. Hagel came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestration.

Nuclear commander lost job after being caught playing fake poker chips

Downfall of Vice-Admiral Timothy Giardina is latest embarrassment for America’s missile men, amid low morale and a string of public scandals

By day, Vice-Admiral Timothy Giardina was one of the US Navy’s most senior figures – as deputy head of US Strategic Command, he was number two in command of America’s nuclear arsenal.

But by night, at the Horseshoe casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa, he was known as Navy Tim, a heavy gambler who was accused of making his own $500 poker chips and eventually banned.

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Documents unveiled under a Freedom of Information Act request depict him as an habitual poker player, spending more than 1,000 hours – or 15 hours per week – at the Horseshoe’s tables in the 18 months before being caught playing three phoney chips in June 2013.

HAGEL: The World Is ‘Damn Dangerous’ And Our Army Is Not Ready

 

In an exclusive interview with Charlie Rose at the Pentagon yesterday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel warned of the unprecedented challenges facing the United States military role on the global stage.

“The world is dangerous. It is damn dangerous,” Hagel said.

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“We live in this imperfect, dynamic, changing, threatening, dangerous, interconnected world that we have never seen before, that we have never seen anything like this before,” Hagel said. “And so policies, yes, are predicated on historical knowledge and cultural awareness and all that goes into that. Have we made mistakes over a series of many years? Yeah, I think we have. I think anybody would agree to that. But that’s not the issue. That’s not the responsibility I have now or the president has or John Kerry. Our responsibilities now are to find ways that we can make it better, find strategies and policies that work within a world of uncontrollables.”

Defense secretary directed ‘nuclear-free’ activist group

Are you sure you know who’s playing for what side?

As mentioned just two days ago, the ‘token’ pledge to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal is just that: A token pledge for public consumption. They’re telling you what you want to hear. The fifth column is alive and well within the highest of all offices in the United States government. America very soon going to be a land of unwalled villages bound to be hit by the sword, as warned by watchmen foretold of. Escape Babylon before it’s too late.

For a deeper background on Chuck Hagel, including his anti-Israel stance, see HERE and HERE.

 

Hagel now ordering massive changes to management of arsenal

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered what is being described in media reports as top-to-bottom changes in how the nation’s nuclear arsenal is managed.

Largely unreported in the coverage of the possible nuclear forces shakeup is that until his appointment as defense secretary, Hagel served on the board of a George Soros-funded group that advocates a nuclear-free world.

Ploughshares opposes America’s development of a missile-defense system and contributes funds to scores of anti-war groups highly critical of U.S. foreign policy and military expansion.

The fund identifies itself as a “publicly supported foundation that funds, organizes and innovates projects to realize a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.”

Nuclear War: Russia Shocks US With Tactical Weapons, Pentagon Retaliates

America is too far behind to catch up. The funds to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal will be too little, too late, and is just a token offering to ‘look busy’ or prepared. After the funding is in place, it still takes years, if not a decade to go from the development to deployment stage. What they’re proposing now might not even account for inflation or go over budget in project finance.

The Soviets could also now shut down the U.S. if they wanted to, but it’s too early since there’s still a chance of damaging retaliation from whatever little capability still remains up the U.S. sleeve. The remaining means of retaliation still need to be sought out and crippled.

It’s beyond the point of no return. By the time 2017 comes around, America might find itself in checkmate — as if the easy disabling of an American warship by Russia over the Mediterranean wasn’t enough of a hint.

If you want insight on what it might look like before a Russian strike upon America, here might be a good idea and start: Spetsnaz’s First World War from the book “Spetsnaz. The Story Behind the Soviet SAS“.

 

Russia is in possession of strategic nuclear weapons far more advanced than the United States, and it will continue to lead the game with its new generation of missiles, according to a comprehensive report from the Russian political newspaper, PRAVDA. Indeed, if World War 3 erupts, Russian Vladimir Putin will win hands down, the report suggested.

The report titled Russia Prepares Nuclear Surprise For NATO, claims that Russia was able to amass its massive nuclear power because the U.S. had been dismissive and neglectful of achieving innovations in decades after winning the Cold War. Specifically, the U.S. had closed the possibility of developing high-precision long-range weapons that could eradicate enemies even without coming to direct contact. But Russia never stops innovating despite much criticism and the more accepted notion that the country is weak and the west is superior. At this point, Russia has “long-range cruise missiles of a new generation that will soon be deployed on submarines of the Black Sea Fleet and missile ships of the Caspian Flotilla,” PRAVDA stated.

Foundation of US nuclear system showing cracks

WASHINGTON (AP) — The foundation of America’s nuclear arsenal is fractured, and the government has no clear plan to repair it.

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It’s not clear that the government recognizes the full scope of the problem, which has wormed its way to the core of the nuclear weapons business without disturbing bureaucracies fixated on defending their own turf. Nor has it aroused the public, which may think nuclear weapons are relics of the past, if it thinks about them at all.

This is not mainly about the safety of today’s weapons, although the Air Force’s nuclear missile corps has suffered failures in discipline, training, morale and leadership over the past two years. Just last week the Air Force fired nuclear commanders at two of its three missile bases for misconduct and disciplined a third commander.

Rather, this is about a broader problem: The erosion of the government’s ability to manage and sustain its nuclear “enterprise,” the intricate network of machines, brains and organizations that enables America to call itself a nuclear superpower.

What have been slipping are certain key building blocks — technical expertise, modern facilities and executive oversight on the civilian side, and discipline, morale and accountability on the military side.

Inside the Ring: Problems of U.S. Nuclear Forces Must Be Addressed

The U.S. has developed and deployed nothing new in the strategic nuclear force since the late 1980’s. If you’ve been following these developments, this is nothing new under the sun from the last five to ten years. The only thing that should be new news is the level of complacency, neglect and urgency needed to stem the tide — of which only a small chance of doing so remains possible.

The prevailing view in the United States is that Nuclear Weapons are Cold War Relics while it also believes its adversaries create new ones, collect and expand their collection like children do LEGOS for fun.

 

U.S. strategic nuclear forces, both weapons and personnel, are experiencing serious problems that must be addressed urgently.

That is a central conclusion of a new study called the “Nuclear Enterprise Review” that the Pentagon is expected to release next week, according to defense officials familiar with the study.

Fixing nuclear forces’ problems will require the investment of billions of defense dollars in modernizing systems and greater leadership attention to training and readiness for the thousands of military personnel who operate and maintain the world’s most powerful arsenal.

The findings were made by an independent review panel on nuclear weapons personnel that identified key leadership and management lapses within nuclear forces.

The review followed several troubling incidents involving nuclear forces and personnel, including a cheating scandal uncovered in January on proficiency testing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, home of 150 Minuteman 3 nuclear missiles. The scandal ensnared 34 troops.

2 Nuclear Commanders Fired, Another Disciplined

The purge continues while America continues to turn a blind eye.

 

The Air Force on Monday fired two more nuclear commanders and disciplined a third, fresh evidence of leadership lapses in a nuclear missile corps that has suffered a rash of recent setbacks, including the firing last year of its top commander.

The most senior officer to be relieved Monday was Col. Carl Jones, the No. 2 commander of the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, in charge of 150 of the Air Force’s 450 Minuteman 3 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was dismissed “for a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership abilities,” and has been reassigned as a special assistant to the wing commander.

The actions Monday were confirmed to The Associated Press in response to an AP inquiry about an internal Air Force investigation of two commanders at the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, which also is responsible for 150 Minuteman 3 missiles.

It is unusual for disciplinary action to be taken against senior officers at two of the Air Force’s three nuclear missile bases on the same day. Officials said the timing was a coincidence. It extends a pattern of leadership failures in the ICBM force over the past year.

Generals blast Obama’s order of troops to fight Ebola

‘The purpose of our soldiers is to fight a war, not medical battles’

WASHINGTON – Two retired U.S. Army generals have blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to send U.S. troops to West Africa to battle the Ebola virus epidemic, saying the military is to fight wars, not disease.

In exclusive interviews with WND, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin and retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely condemned Obama’s decision, as U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved up to 4,000 boots on the ground from a previous ceiling of 3,000.

The concern is that these soldiers, who will be exposed to the environment where the virus is prevalent, could bring it to the United States and potentially spread the disease as they rotate back to the United States and are assigned to other units.

Islamic State threat ‘beyond anything we’ve seen’: Pentagon

“They are an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it’s in Iraq or anywhere else,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon about the militant group, which has seized a third of Iraq and released a video this week showing one of its fighters beheading an American hostage.

Highway to the danger zone? Non-pilot given command of Air Force in Pacific

The White House has picked the first female general to head the Air Force in the Pacific, which will make her the first non-pilot to command air power in such a large theater of operation.

The Pentagon announced this week that Air Force Lt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson has been nominated for promotion to four-star general and as commander of Pacific Air Forces, the Air Force component of U.S. Pacific Command. It is a major combatant command whose air, ground and naval forces have broad responsibility for security in the Asia-Pacific region. Her nomination was sent to the Senate for confirmation.

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Gen. Robinson is not a career pilot. Her military profession is air battle manager. She has served aboard the Air Force’s surveillance aircraft, the E-3 AWACs and E-8 JSTARS, and she was nominated for a promotion amid a drive for more diversity in the Pentagon.

A retired pilot said there is a reason the Air Force historically has put a pilot in charge of large combatant command Air Forces.

“It is because you make operational decisions that require the understanding of what you are going to ask pilots to execute in combat where the wrong decisions mean the difference between life and death,” the retired pilot said. “Now her vice commander and director of operations will be rated fighter pilots, but still she makes the decisions.”

Air Force security failed nuke test

WASHINGTON — Armed security forces at a nuclear missile base failed a drill last summer that simulated the hostile takeover of a missile launch silo because they were unable to speedily regain control of the captured nuclear weapon, according to an internal Air Force review obtained by the Associated Press.

The previously unreported failure, which the Air Force called a “critical deficiency,” was the reason the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana flunked its broader safety and security inspection.

The security team was required to respond to the simulated capture of a Minuteman 3 nuclear missile silo, termed an “Empty Quiver” scenario in which a nuclear weapon is lost, stolen or seized. Each of the Air Force’s 450 Minuteman 3 silos contains one missile armed with a nuclear warhead and ready for launch on orders from the president.