Kirtland Air Force Base’s 498th Nuclear Systems Wing, which was decertified for six months in 2010 after failing a nuclear surety inspection, will be inactivated today as part of a realignment of Air Force munitions squadrons.
In April 2011, the Air Force announced plans to transfer its nuclear munitions squadrons from Air Force Materiel Command to Air Force Global Strike Command. The 498th Nuclear Systems Wing, which had units at Kirtland, Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.; and Minot Air Force Base, N.D.; shifted to Global Strike Command.
The roughly 175 people in the 498th’s Kirtland unit — the 898th Munitions Squadron — are now part of the 377th Maintenance Group, base officials said.
In January 2010, Air Force Materiel Command decertified the 898th Munitions Squadron and its parent unit, the 498th Nuclear Systems Wing, after the squadron failed a critical six-day nuclear surety inspection. A nuclear surety inspection evaluates a unit’s ability to manage nuclear resources while complying with all nuclear standards.
The 898th Munitions Squadron maintained Kirtland’s Underground Munitions Maintenance and Storage Complex, one of two major storage areas for Air Force nuclear weapons.
The Federation of American Scientists estimates the Kirtland facility maintains more than 2,000 nuclear weapons.
The decertification prevented the unit from handling nuclear weapons until it corrected its deficiencies and passed a re-inspection, which the 898th did in June 2010. The decertification was requested by Brig. Gen. Everett Thomas, then commander of Kirtland’s Nuclear Weapons Center.
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal
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