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Utah AFA focuses on Global Strike Issues

  • Published
  • By Crystal Jordan
  • Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Air Force Global Strike Command recently headlined the Utah Air Force Association's 31st annual Focus on Defense symposium, with the Global Strike Commander serving as keynote speaker.

Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, Global Strike Command commander, discussed the Command's mission and heritage with more than 350 attendees at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center June 16 for a symposium titled: "Standup of Global Strike - An Air Force Opportunity."

"Being the steward of two thirds of the United States' operational nuclear triad is a special trust and responsibility, one that we all take very seriously," said the general. "Our strategic warriors provide the bedrock of deterrence and stability for our Nation," General Klotz said.

General Klotz said that the recently-published Nuclear Posture Review and the recently-signed New START Treaty revalidate the enduring importance of the nuclear triad to both deterrence and stability. "As a result, our partners in the ICBM sustainment and modernization enterprise at Hill Air Force Base will continue to have a critically important mission and critically important work to perform," he said.

The nation's ICBMs have been on continuous alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week, since 1959, the general said. On the conventional side, since March 2004, the Command's B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress bombers have been supporting the Continuous Bomber Presence mission in the Pacific, and the Command also has more than 1,200 people deployed to locations worldwide, he said.

According to Kevin Sullivan, Utah AFA symposium chairman, the symposium theme was a response to renewed public interest in nuclear surety and the subsequent interest in Air Force Global Strike Command.

While in Ogden, General Klotz also toured Hill Air Force Base's nuclear enterprise mission. The Ogden Air Logistics Center hosted his tour of its transporter erector program, positive inventory control warehouses, weapons storage areas, and its cruise missile repair facility.

The general said his goal is to see and meet the people involved in all facets of the Global Strike Command mission.