{{The US Air Force has sacked nine mid-level nuclear commanders and will discipline dozens more in a test cheating scandal, officials have said.}}<\/p>\n
Nearly one in five of the Air Force’s nuclear missile officers have been implicated in a ring of cheating on monthly proficiency tests.<\/p>\n
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has said the nuclear force is suffering from “systemic problems”.<\/p>\n
A series of programmes to improve leadership are also said to be planned.<\/p>\n
None of the fired commanders is directly involved in the alleged cheating. Each was instead determined to have failed in leadership responsibility.<\/p>\n
In addition to the nine officers sacked, the senior commander of Malmstrom Air Force Base’s 341st Missile Wing, Col Robert Stanley (in photo), was allowed to resign.<\/p>\n
Commanders of the 341st Wing’s three missile squadrons – each of whom is responsible for three nuclear missiles – were also fired, the Associated Press news agency reports.<\/p>\n
Ninety-one missile launch crew members at Malmstrom have thus far been implicated in the cheating scandal, including more than 40 who face disciplinary action that may include dismissal.<\/p>\n
Cheating allegations first emerged during investigations into alleged drug use by personnel at other bases.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the revelations, the Air Force announced the entire team at the base would be re-tested.<\/p>\n
It is the latest scandal to hit the US Air Force and nuclear missile force.<\/p>\n
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel had previously ordered a high-level review of the US nuclear forces, saying he was “deeply concerned” about morale and discipline among nuclear officers, while insisting that US nuclear arms were safe.<\/p>\n
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{{The US Air Force has sacked nine mid-level nuclear commanders and will discipline dozens more in a test cheating scandal, officials have said.}} Nearly one in five of the Air Force’s nuclear missile officers have been implicated in a ring of cheating on monthly proficiency tests. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000051253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-13465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000051253,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13465.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13465.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13465.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13465.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13465.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13465.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000051253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13465"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=13465"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=13465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}