Interview

Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, USAF – The First Commander of Air Force Global Strike Command

Written by: John D. Gresham on August 20, 2009
Categories: Aerospace, Interviews
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USAF photo by Scott Ash.

In other words, your role in this is: You state a need, and it’s up to the DOE and other people within that chain to come up with a safe, secure, and reliable package that you can count on to operate.

Our area of competence is operating, maintaining, and securing [delivery] platforms and the weapons that go on them. Their area of competence is in the design of the weapon itself. They’re the ones who have to make those calls.

We’re drawing down the number of nuclear-armed missiles and we will have a surplus of launch vehicles. Is there, in your mind, potential for using those launch vehicles for conventional strike operations, and if so, what are the downsides of doing that? Are there merits in having both ICBMs and bombers?

Let me say a little bit about reductions. As I indicated earlier, we have been on a path of significant reductions in our overall strategic deterrent force for a number of years, especially since 1991. We have taken actions both to change their alert posture as well as reduce the number of weapons. As I indicated earlier, the START treaty and the Moscow treaty are taking us to the lowest number of deployed weapons we’ve had since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s.

We in the Air Force continue to see benefits of having a balanced triad of strategic nuclear forces, including the sea-launched ballistic missile . By the way, I am a very big fan of the Sea-Launched Ballistic Missile force, both for the capabilities it provides the nation in terms of survivability, as well as the skill and professionalism of the nuclear submariners who operate the system. I’ve had an opportunity to visit both the East Coast and the West Coast SLBM bases, and observe how they secure the weapons and how they conduct their operations. Their skill and professionalism is world-class.

The ICBM provides important capabilities. Of the three legs of the strategic nuclear triad, it is the most responsive to national leadership. Also, given the number of ICBMs we currently have, any potential adversary would have to use a large portion of his own nuclear force to disarm all of our ICBMs. If he attempted to do so, he would exhaust the majority of his nuclear capabilities and would still be subject to retaliation by our remaining nuclear forces, including the SLBMs and bombers. Faced with this prospect, an adversary would have no incentive to launch an attack in the first place and, therefore, would be deterred from doing so.

Bombers are also important in the sense that they provide great flexibility and versatility. They can avoid flying over sensitive areas in ways that ballistic missiles may not be able to. Plus, you can use them to signal resolve and intent by forward-deploying them to various parts of the world. They also have very important conventional, or non-nuclear, capabilities. We saw that play out magnificently in the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, where the B-2s were part of the opening salvos, and where B-52s were dropping massive bomb loads from 35,000 feet to within a few meters of their targets. This was a very impressive capability and very important to the combatant commanders who were conducting those military operations. So, we continue to see a need for the long-range bomber, with the capability either to penetrate enemy defenses all the way to the target or to conduct standoff attacks, depending on the circumstances.

Decisions [on the overall nuclear force structure] are being made as part of the ongoing … nuclear posture review and negotiations for follow-on to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. At the end of the day, those are the decisions that will be made by the Secretary of Defense, by the President of the United States, and by the Congress. For us in the Global Strike Command, whether the number is “X” or the number is “Y” or the number is “Z,” our mission remains the same, and that is to ensure that we can safely and securely operate and maintain those systems that are in our charge.

What message do you have for the men and women you are going to be commanding in Global Strike Command?

Those individuals who serve in 8th and 20th Air Forces have had a tough and challenging couple of years as we have gone through our self-assessment of the Air Force nuclear enterprise. They need to be assured that the Secretary of the Air Force, the Chief of Staff, and the entire senior leadership of the Air Force are extraordinarily proud of each and every one of them, and what they do. As I have said earlier, we have very, very high standards in the nuclear business. We are not going to relax those standards. We have seen encouraging developments in performance of day-to-day operations, and in performance during nuclear security inspections over the last several months. I’m absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to work with these great Airmen. I think there will be great benefit to our bomber and missile crews, and our security, maintenance and support personnel in having a single command that pays attention just to what they’re doing and serves as a single voice, as a single advocate for their needs and the needs of their families. And Global Strike Command will be that voice.

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