The Air Force’s top officer said on Wednesday that his service does not yet have enough COVID-19 testing kits to test all of his highest-priority personnel, including nuclear missile and bomber crews.
The Air Force’s top officer said Wednesday that his service does not yet have enough COVID-19 testing kits to test all of his highest priority personnel, including nuclear missile and bomber crews.
In particular, there appears to be a growing acknowledgement among senior military leaders that the virus will return on a seasonal basis. “We are all talking about it,” Goldfein said. “Until we have a vaccine, we’re going to be living with this virus, and the potential for it to come back in some cyclical way is likely,” he said, adding that “all the projections are no vaccine for upwards of a year.
Story continuesWhile acknowledging an “urgency” to expand testing, especially as he lacked the kits to test even his highest-priority forces, Goldfein said that national priorities such as nursing homes had to come first. “I would not want to take tests away from that top national priority for my younger and healthier force,” he said. Hyten later told reporters that the military would be able to test all its tier one forces by the end of this month.
Social distancing in the nuclear world is complicated by the “two-person” rule for operating the weapons. Missileers, Air Force specialists responsible for operating nuclear missiles, work in two-person teams in underground capsules, cramped quarters where the two operators sit just feet away from each other.
Those crews are playing an essential role during the pandemic, according to Goldfein. “Air mobility is critical,” he said. “They’re becoming, along with our medical professionals, the MVPs of the COVID response.” Part of that reset involves figuring out how to push as many recruits as possible through basic military training while continuing to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s protocols for social distancing, according to Goldfein, who identified basic training as something the Air Force could not afford to give up, as doing so would have “a direct impact on readiness, not only today but in the future.
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