Commanders attribute the success to their early response, which began with a directive in January to review „disease containment plans“ at bases around the country and included staggering and extending deployment schedules, tracking the virus in surrounding communities, and deploying inspection teams on bases to ensure social distancing measures were being followed.
„It became clear that this was moving across the globe and we wanted to kind of get in front of it,“ Air Force Lt. Gen. Anthony Cotton, deputy commander of the Global Strike Command, said in an interview. „We just saw what was happening and hoped that it wasn’t gonna come our way, but we wanted to prepare.”
That included understanding “what happened, what could happen, and what steps would be necessary that we would have to take to protect our force and mission,“ he said.
The number of personnel assigned to the three legs of the nuclear triad that have tested positive for Covid-19 is not being publicly released for security reasons. But when asked whether an estimate that the number of cases were in the ballpark of „onesies and twosies“ was on target, Cotton responded, „that’s a fair assessment.“
„I’m knocking on wood right now [but] so far our measures are working,“ he said. „We’re still flying sorties, the ICBM forces are still on 24 hours, we’re still doing training. You’re not getting headlines that our community is all bed-ridden because it’s just not happening. We were able to kind of get it after it from the beginning.“
And the top brass wants to keep it that way. On Wednesday the Pentagon announced a new tiered approach to testing military personnel for the virus, giving top priority to the nation’s nuclear forces.
Some of the preparations began weeks before the rest of the military, let alone civilian institutions.
On Jan. 22, a day after the first coronavirus case was reported in the U.S., the chief of aerospace medicine at the Air Force Global Strike Command issued a directive to its bases across the country: Review your „disease containment plans“ in anticipation of a worldwide outbreak.
Days later, the Louisiana headquarters that oversees nuclear bombers and missiles was conducting daily virus briefings and tracking the health statistics of far-flung units. As February arrived, it put in place plans for remote operations and teleworking.
By the end of February, all of its bomber and missile wings were ordered to conduct tabletop exercises to game out how extensive a localized outbreak could be and identify procedures to keep bomber squadrons, intercontinental ballistic missile crews and nuclear-armed submarines on alert 24 hours a day without interruption.
For instance, one base that is home to dozens of bombers simulated a scenario in which an arriving aircraft carried passengers who were later confirmed to have Covid-19. Base inspectors war-gamed how to respond, including what roles security forces, fire personnel, maintenance units and aircrews would need to do to prevent the spread.
Some of the actions were taken well over a month before the military command responsible for the defense of North America decided to prepare for the worst by standing up a backup command center deep inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado on March 19.
A major contributor was the very structure and culture of the nuclear weapons community, which is designed to keep operating even in the aftermath a nuclear conflict or amid a biological weapons attack.
All three legs of the nuclear triad — bombers, submarines and ICBMs — train to maintain operations and remain in contact even when standard communications are cut off, transportation networks are destroyed and in worst-case, higher commands or the national leadership has been knocked out.
That includes a fleet of airborne command centers that can manage the nuclear force if their primary headquarters have gone dark.
„They are geared toward locking down and riding out the worst battle possible so they have these contingencies to do that,“ said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federal of American Scientists. „They have been planning for decades for contingencies against biological attack so that is probably what comes closest to this.
„I think what they’ve done early on is probably sort of set in motion some of those protocols — isolating crews, extending isolation periods before they go to their post,“ he added.
For example, U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska, which oversees all the nation’s nuclear forces, was well prepared to take swifter action than most.
“From our chain of command to the technology we use, we are redundant, resilient and reliable so we can continue operating no matter the crisis or circumstance,” said Maj. Kate Atanasoff, a Strategic Command spokesperson. „In the midst of Covid-19, this is no different.“
„We also have the unique ability to both sequester and disperse, mitigating the threat posed by Covid-19,“ she added.
Commanders altered the schedules of forces in missile fields in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming — bases originally selected to station ICBMs in part due to their remote locations. That includes extending their tours of duty.
As the ICBM crews rotate, a „clean team“ is standing by „that can take over if someone gets sick,“ said Linda Frost, a spokesperson for Global Strike Command. „They are also screened before heading out to the field.“
Procedures were also put in place early to isolate crews of nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines, including „14-day in port sequestration onboard ships prior to all ballistic missile submarine patrols,“ according to Atanasoff.
„Only after a comprehensive evaluation by the command, in consultation with medical authorities, are the submarine crews getting underway,“ she added. „We are ensuring that our deploying crews have a high confidence of being Covid-19 free prior to departing on their strategic deterrent patrol.“
As for bombers, Atanasoff said, „flights are continuing as normal to maintain training and readiness, with personnel taking all recommended preventive measures including social distancing, hand-washing, and alerting medical professionals of symptoms.“
Additional safeguards have also been put in place aboard the E-6B Airborne Command Post and E-4B National Airborne Operation Centers, the aircraft designed to operate around the clock in the event of a nuclear crisis.
Cotton said commanders are also closely watching states where nuclear forces are located that have been harder hit by the virus. But he said he confident the aggressive approach has been able to blunt the spread of the virus so far.
„There’s been cases,“ he said. „We won’t give details on the numbers. But one of the things we’re seeing is our measures are preventing that from doing anything as far as seeing that spread within those forces.“
Source: politico.com
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