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Force Improvement Program continues to move forward

  • Published
  • By Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen continue to see positive changes in the nuclear force being made through the Force Improvement Program.

During her address at the Air Force Association's Air & Space Conference, Sept. 15, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James talked about those improvements and nuclear incentive pays coming for select Airmen who perform or support the nuclear mission.

AFGSC is pursuing two mechanisms for awarding incentive pay - the Special Duty Assignment Pay and Assignment Incentive Pay. Both officers and enlisted members serving in certain career fields in the nuclear enterprise will receive up to $300 per month.

Special Duty Assignment Pay will apply to certain enlisted career fields in the nuclear enterprise. Assignment Incentive Pay is targeted for officers assigned to and working in critical nuclear billets, with primary duty in the missile fields.

"People assigned to these demanding and exclusive nuclear positions take on an extraordinary amount of responsibility, workload and inspection rigor for the world's most lethal weapons," James said. "The nuclear mission is our number one mission and we're going to compensate our Airmen accordingly."

The Air Force and AFGSC are continuing work on the incentive packages, including which Air Force specialities will receive the additional pay and how much it will be.

The incentive pays are effective Oct. 1, 2014.

Announcement of these incentives is just one success in the ongoing series of changes brought about through FIP.

Since FIP began in February, the Air Force has directed over $160 million this fiscal year to go after urgent, near-term shortfalls in the nuclear enterprise, such as equipment and parts for ICBM maintainers, new vehicles for operations and maintenance, and quality of life improvements in the field.

Missile bases throughout the command have seen a number of changes already, including improvements to the way testing and evaluation is conducted, and the stand-up of a helicopter operations group.

To provide units with necessary manning and skills, more than 1,100 positions have been added to the AFGSC unit manning document across the major command. In addition, the Air Force will be manning eight critical nuclear specialties at a 100 percent effective rate by skill and location, including security forces, missile maintainers, bomber crew chiefs, command post controllers, nuclear weapons maintainers and loaders.

The Command recently announced that security forces Airmen at all three missile wings, as well as those serving at Camp Guernsey, Wyoming, will soon be fielding new personal gear along and a new camouflage pattern uniform that will improve their effectiveness in the field.

As FIP continues, the next major effort will be implementing recommendations that are coming from the bomber portion of the program, while continuing to implement the ICBM recommendations and other improvements generated by Airmen conducting the mission every day.