News and Politics | October 24, 2008 | 30 comments

US accidentally misplaces nuclear weapons and equipment

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7690447.stm

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InformedTexan
The US Air Force (USAF) is planning to set up a new Global Strike Command for its nuclear weapons as part of a re-organisation after recent mishaps.

The move follows the discovery that six nuclear weapons were mistakenly flown across the US, and that nuclear missile fuses were sent unknowingly to Taiwan.

In June, Gen T Michael Moseley, USAF chief of staff, and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne were both asked to resign by Defence Secretary Robert Gates after a report revealed that the security of US nuclear weapons and parts had been in question.

The report cited two embarrassing incidents.

The first occurred in 2006 when electrical fuses for ballistic missiles were mistakenly sent from a US base in Wyoming to Taiwan in place of helicopter batteries. The B-52 crew had been unaware they were carrying the fuses.

The Chinese government, which vehemently opposes US arms sales to Taiwan and has threatened to attack the island if it declares independence, was informed by the US about the error.

The other embarrassing incident occurred last year when a B-52 bomber mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles flew across the country, WITHOUT ANYONE ANYONE REALIZING THE WEAPONS WERE ON BOARD. (Caps added for emphasis, I'm sure you understand).
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30 comments // US accidentally misplaces nuclear weapons and equipment

  • themanwithadog
    • 0
      themanwithadog  

    • This is an obvious deterrent to anyone with a Stanley knife or access to a phone whereby they can be "accidently" overheard plotting to overthrow the USA.

      The "weapons" the 9/11 attackers used could have been nuked by this Strategic Force. Any phone booth likewise.

      I worked at both Mildenhall and Lakenheath, while there a bomb fell from an aircraft as it was taxi-ing, we were all evacuated from the site while they cleared it away.

      We all had our noses pressed up to the wire mesh surrounding the site and watched as the missile was removed (with a fork lift truck) It fell of at the first attempt and everyone cheered.

      As you may guess it did not go off

      I once read that if you gave a thousand monkeys a thousand typwriters within a thousand years they would come up with the complete works of William Shakespeare.

      The US has a quite a few of these monkeys running the country

    • 3 years ago
  • 4u
    • 0
      4u  

    • are you kidding me!!!!!! and we're supposed to be safe?????who the hell is running this side show????

    • 3 years ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  

    • While I'll admit this is pretty bad, I think the military has a pretty decent record when it comes to stuff like this. I'm sure that this does not happen often, if at all. Sounds more like Bush cronies, I mean, appointees, screwing things up. Business as usual.

    • 3 years ago
  • speedbacon
    • 0
      speedbacon  

    • I'm not really that surprised. Kids shoot themselves all the time with guns found "safe" in the closet. What makes you think that couldn't happen with our current kids in the military?

    • 3 years ago
  • msheth87
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  

    • There are just way too many of them in our arsenal fro my comfort. Why hasn't the Galactic Light Federation
      intervened in this matter and taken them away from everyone?

    • 3 years ago
  • lupus123
    • 0
      lupus123  

    • this is just plain embarrassing. The government spends so much money on our military, you would think we could keep track of where our weapons are heading.

    • 3 years ago
  • idealist
  • ItsAllSubjective
    • 0
      ItsAllSubjective  

    • What kind of example are we setting for the rest of the world? The U.S. tries to control Nucleur weapons in other countries but yet they misplace theirs.

    • 3 years ago
  • Yhtomit
  • poptart_invasion
    • 0
      poptart_invasion  

    • yeah, it is over reaction. and they never went "missing" (vanished into thin air), they were "missplaced" (werent where they were supposed to be, but were discovered and recovered). still, i wonder if we'd fair better if everyone in the government was fired and replaced with 7-11 employees

    • 3 years ago
  • Mikeysfake1
    • 0
      Mikeysfake1  

    • I'm sure those missiles have launch codes and failsafes. Over reaction. We would see a missile like that coming before it left the ground.

    • 3 years ago
  • Egnatius212
    • 0
      Egnatius212  

    • I think the sad truth is that no matter how perfected a system may be, mistakes will happen eventually, and we can only hope that, such as in this case, no one is harmed when the mistakes do occur.

    • 3 years ago
  • JimenezCricket
  • keithponder
  • MrRah
    • 0
      MrRah  
    • keithponder:

      Stolen and sold? The weapons never left USAF control. This article's material and subject is misleading. There were a ton of dudes severely punished because of those incidents.

    • 3 years ago
  • CalgarC
  • krush_productions
  • twodee
    • 0
      twodee  

    • Don't we all just hate getting caught with a hand in the cookie jar.

      "I didn't even realize my hand was falling into the pile of cookies!"

    • 3 years ago
  • unadopted
  • Tangfastic
  • dirtyemowords
    • 0
      dirtyemowords  

    • hahaha! What's next? "the usaf are sorry to anounce, we've accidentally targeted Washington with the Star Wars defence system. Everyone within 250 milesnow has 4 minutes to live. Sorry."

    • 3 years ago
  • cantucwearebrothers
  • satanskidney
  • twodee
    • 0
      twodee  
    • Image
    • cantucwearebrothers:

      China is pissed:
      "The front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily said that Asian and European countries should banish the U.S. dollar from their direct trade relations for a start, relying only on their own currencies."

    • 3 years ago
  • ninja_tiger
    • 0
      ninja_tiger  

    • This somehow does not seem like the whole story, and what if????? it was an excuse to can military brass who would not comply with a Commander in Chiefs orders to declare martial law. Is this too far fetched to be possible? I truly believe in incompetence at all levels of government, but it would be interesting to know who, how, why and if there are other reasons these brass were canned. Worse shit happens in the military every week. Does any one out there have any other real information to share on this. Am I being overly paranoid?

    • 3 years ago
  • MrRah
  • ChieftanMews
    • 0
      ChieftanMews  

    • This kind of shit baffles me. How do those sorts of miscues occur? ..and how is that sort of incompetence echoed at what had to have been multiple levels of official control?

    • 3 years ago
  • MrRah
    • 0
      MrRah  
    • ChieftanMews:

      This is the result of a strained military. All of the branches have experienced similar "FU". However, you can drop a nuke and not worry...they have a ton of fails safes that go from the pilot to the White House.

    • 3 years ago
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