Center for a New American Security

Secretary Gates continues to surprise. (Though his fights with the boys in blue have been well chronicled here.) This is about as close to relief for cause as we're gonna get:

Both the top uniformed officer of the Air Force and its civilian leader were asked Thursday to submit their resignations, FOX News confirms. Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne will resign by the end of the day, two sets of sources tell FOX News.

Defense Secretary Gates has publicly identified a number of problems recently with the Air Force, including last year's accidental flight of nuclear weapons on a B-52 bomber, and Moseley's ties to contract problems over the Air Force Thunderbird air show.

Moseley was not singled out for blame, but the investigation laid out a trail of communications from him and other Air Force leaders that eventually influenced the 2005 contract award. Included in that were friendly e-mails between Moseley and an executive in the company that won the bid, according to The Associated Press.

Last week, Air Force Adm. Kirkland H. Donald presented a report on the nuclear weapons incident to Gates, who had ordered the investigation. The incident took place last August when a nuclear-armed B-52 flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. Another nuclear incident just recently discovered was the mistaken shipment of 4 nuclear fuses to Taiwan in the fall of 2006.

Gates is expected to brief reporters on the resignations later Thursday. Gates also recently spoke at the Air Force Academy describing the Air Force's sluggishness to step up its force readiness.

Sources tell FOX News that the Air Force has drawn criticism for back-channel dealings to gain equipment on Capitol Hill that had been denied by Gates.

The resignations were apparently orchestrated by Gates' office, with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen this morning telling Moseley of his option either to resign or to be fired, and Undersecretary of Defense Gordon England giving the same options to Wynne. England traveled to Dayton, Ohio, to deliver the message personally to Wynne.

Update: More from Air Force Times, which originally broke the story.

Update II: Noah writes in to say "Danger Room has USAF resignation news out the [proverbial] ass." Good gouge there...including a suggestion that more heads may roll before this is all done.