US Air Force, WASHINGTON: The U.S. Strategic Command is transforming by incorporating old missions, adding new ones and making the command more flexible and agile for the 21st century, officials said.
STRATCOM, at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., still maintains the U.S. nuclear deterrent, but gained a number of new missions as a result of changes in the unified command plan in 2002.
These new missions called for the command to make fundamental changes in the way it has conducted business, said Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Campbell, the command's chief of staff.
In the plan, the command received missile defense, global strike, information operations and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. In 2004, the mission of combating weapons of mass destruction was added.
“Those missions, by and large, were about planning, coordinating and integrating,” General Campbell said. “Execution is when directed – especially for global strike.”
Since Pentagon leaders announced the changes in 2002, command officials have been
