Air Force to complete nuclear mission assessment late this year

The Air Force's deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration told reporters Tuesday the service is in the midst of collecting a broad range of data intended to inform a nuclear mission assessment, which it will complete at the end of the year.

Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein said during a May 1 Air Force Association breakfast the assessment will integrate "a wide swath of metrics" on the nuclear enterprise, including its workforce, readiness posture, budget, sustainment and modernization.

The assessment was required in the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, and Weinstein said that while the service has been collecting this data for some time, it has never integrated it into a single database.

"It's really healthy to take all those items and bring it together," he said. "It was already being looked at. Now it's being looked at holistically."