By Marina Malenic

The Air Force is creating a new major command organization with authority over all air-breathing nuclear assets, Air Force leaders said.

According to a nuclear "roadmap" unveiled at a Pentagon press briefing, the service will establish the Global Strike Command by next September under a three-star billet.

"In the 1990s, the Air Force restructured its nuclear forces … and we lost focus on our air power-based nuclear deterrent," said newly-sworn-in Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, referring to the dissolution of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). "Over the past year, we have taken many corrective actions in response to some painful lessons learned."

SAC provided a nuclear deterrent against potential Soviet Union nuclear aggression, with SAC founded on a three-legged stool of nuclear deterrence: Air Force ICBMs and bombers, and Navy boomer submarines.

Donley was alluding to two recent nuclear mishandling incidents that resulted in the forced resignations of his predecessor, Michael Wynn, and former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley. The incidents included an unauthorized, accidental transfer of munitions from Minot Air Force Base, N.D. to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in August last year, and an inadvertent shipment of sensitive missile components to Taiwan in 2006.

Under the revitalization plan, all nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers will be moved from the Air Combat Command, and Air Force ICBMs will be shifted from the Air Force Space Command, to the new organization.

The command will be led by a three-star general who will oversee the selection process of the headquarters location, said Maj. Gen. Donald Alston, director of the Air Force Nuclear Task Force. Alston said that person is expected to be chosen "in two to three months." However, he cautioned that the goal of creating the new command by September is "very aggressive."

"This is the nuclear business, so it’s going to take as long as it needs to take," Alston told reporters after the briefing.

The service has 20 B-2 bombers and 57 B-52 bombers that have both conventional and nuclear capability. Its conventional B-1 bombers will remain under the Air Combat Command, according to Donley.

A nuclear review panel headed by former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger had recommended placement of the entire bomber fleet under the authority of the Space Command. That organization currently controls the ICBM force, in addition to its responsibilities for space operations and cyber warfare.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said the service considered that plan but rejected it because it would have put too many disparate missions on the Space Command plate.

"We have decided to align the cyber mission with Air Force Space Command," Schwartz told reporters at the Friday briefing. "Part of the consideration here was that a prime imperative of the Schlesinger report was to attain appropriately needed focus on the nuclear mission.

"And it was our conclusion that a major command that did space, cyber and nuclear was … too much for a single organization to address with the necessary focus," he added.

The Eighth Air Force and 20th Air Force will be united under the Global Strike Command. Eighth Air Force currently has responsibilities for cyber activities, but that mission will be shifted to the 24th Air Force, according to Donley.

The roadmap would implement approximately 100 recommendations grouped into a set of major actions that include:

• Establishment of the Air Force Global Strike Command
• Consolidation of nuclear sustainment functions under the Air Force Materiel Command Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center
• Enhancement of the nuclear inspection processes under oversight of the Air Force Inspector General
• Review and revitalization of nuclear-related education, training, career development and force development activities
• Establishment of stricter inventory control measures for nuclear-weapons-related materiel

Over the course of the past year, the Air Force has already funded "initiatives that were immediately executable" under the plan, according to a press statement. "A total of $84.7 [million] was funded in the areas of nuclear sustainment, security, training and facility projects," it stated. For the current fiscal year 2009 that began four weeks ago, "the Air Force is identifying funds from within the current budget to continue implementation of nuclear enterprise initiatives and addressing emerging requirements with Congress."

Donley said an additional $1 billion would likely be contained in the upcoming Air Force six-year spending plan to create and sustain a fourth B-52 squadron, as mandated by Congress.