US:US DEFENCE secretary Robert Gates has fired the US air force's civilian and military chiefs, an unprecedented move that came after a classified Pentagon investigation found "a chain of failures" in the air force's safeguarding of the US nuclear arsenal.
Dr Gates decided on Thursday to remove air force secretary Michael Wynne and the chief of staff, Gen Michael "Buzz" Moseley, because "the focus of the air force leadership has drifted with respect to perhaps its most sensitive mission", he said, adding that he would recommend replacements for both positions to US president George Bush shortly.
The departures of Mr Wynne and Gen Moseley cap a disastrous period for the air force, one that has included a bomber wing inadvertently flying nuclear warheads over the US, the mistaken and long-unnoticed transfer of secret nuclear-related materials to Taiwan, and a corrupt $50 million (€31.78 million) contract for a Thunderbirds air show that went to a company owned by a retired four-star general and a civilian friend of senior air force leaders.
Dr Gates is the first defence secretary to fire the military and civilian heads of a service at the same time, underscoring his willingness to shake up the Pentagon, officials said.
Only a few months into his tenure, in March 2007, he forced army secretary Francis Harvey to resign over his handling of problems in care for wounded outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre.
The Pentagon investigation into the Taiwan incident - in which four air force ballistic missile fuses were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan from the Defence Logistics Agency in 2006 - led Dr Gates to realise that dramatic steps were needed to correct critical shortfalls in air force oversight of the nuclear arsenal. The classified materials were in Taiwan military control for about 17 months.
The investigation also found a "gradual erosion" of nuclear standards, technical expertise and oversight over the past decade.
At a news conference on Thursday, Dr Gates noted with some irritation that after the two incidents in which the air force lost control over nuclear components, the call for a thorough investigation "was not initiated by the air force leadership, but required my intervention".
Not only did top officials fall short in those cases, but "they failed to recognise systemic problems" or address them.
He said a "substantial number" of generals and colonels had been identified as "potentially subject to disciplinary measures". - (LA Times-Washington Post service)