US army loses 6 nukes for 3.5 hours

[Bruno]

I don't know what to think.

I want to believe it was an accident and not an orchestrated political event, but how on earth can something like this happen.
You can't just drive a forklift into a nuke bunker, pick up a crate of nukes unknowingly and unchallenged, and load them into a plane without anyone even knowing that 6 nukes were gone.
They didn't even know they were gone until the receiving party asked them why the hell 6 nukes arrived unanounced and unsecured. Talk about shit hitting the fan.

I have done projects in a nuclear fuel manufacturing plant and the amount of red tape and security procedures was huge. And that was just raw non weapons grade fuel.
For handling live nukes, I can only imagine...

One thing is for sure: a lot of heads will roll. And this investigation would probably make the inquisition proud.
Hopefully the results of the investigation will be made public.

[mhailey]

I believe the Air Force General commanding the air squadron which handled these nukes has already been fired, and is subject of a criminal investigation.

Edit: may have been mistaken on the criminal issues, but they will probably be coming against someone.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20427730/

[gratewhitehuntr]

Nukes - shmukes... who cares?

Oh, you do?

have you noticed a little tin pot country in the middle east called Iran?

seems they are running 2000 centrifuges to make a bomb as soon as they can

I know I'm alot more worried about a haji with a bomb than some mislabeled or misplaced US warheads.

Any idea how many we have?

well over 10,000 hot

[STR8 77]

I know I'm alot more worried about a haji with a bomb than some mislabeled or misplaced US warheads

Am I the only one who thinks this is uncalled for?

[JMS]

Am I the only one who thinks this is uncalled for?

Probably not, but it doesn't bother me any!

[scarface]

I'm fine with it, too.

-whatever

-Lou

[gugi]

have you noticed a little tin pot country in the middle east called Iran?

seems they are running 2000 centrifuges to make a bomb as soon as they can

I know I'm alot more worried about a haji with a bomb than some mislabeled or misplaced US warheads.

Any idea how many we have?

well over 10,000 hot

I think there is a big difference between having a nuke and delivering a nuke. Iran can indeed deliver them on Israel, but that's about it (and that's probably the last thing they can do). The way I see it - having them is a huge bargaining chip. Of course it makes US and Israel extremely uncomfortable, but I am not too excited about bully politics either.

I am highly suspicious that this is as big of an issue as the government is trying to make it. After all they didn't do much to prevent North Korea from obtaining nukes. And for that matter didn't do much to prevent Iran from obtaining them either. I do not know how establishing policy works, but I am sure US is very prepared for nuclear Iran. It will happen sooner or later and all this noise is just populism.

And as a food for thought - Russia doesn't seem to mind Iran going nuclear. And they border the country (across a sea anyways).

[heliguy]

Am I the only one who thinks this is uncalled for?

many here think this is uncalled for, but some people are just looking for a big reaction once you realize this, its best to treat them like you would a child acting up to get attention. ignore it and they will grow up in time.

[Beardhunter]

It never ceases to amaze me the way some people take
absolutely every opportunity they get to bash the United
States Military. You know we could start bringing up the
things the US Military has done for the nations of all of these
posters but,...we won't.

Are they perfect? No. Do they make mistakes? Yes.

But for Christ's sake, there is no mistaking the fact that the
World is a better place because of their past and present actions.

The warheads were not armed. The firing devices were not even
on the plane. There was never a danger of an explosion.

They made an error. Now it will be recified.

Steve

[Bruno]

My post was not a US bashing post. Had this happened in France or the UK, my reaction would have been the same. Let's not bring politics into this because that is not why I posted this.

The system is designed not to allow even the remotest possibility of something like this happening, so this IS a big deal. If this could be organized on purpose, it would be very easy for terrorists to have access to nuclear warheads on US soil. The hardest part of nuclear attack on the US is bringing a weapon in.

Btw, a lot of people don't realize it, but there is an awful lot of lost nukes strewn around the planet, waiting for someone to find them.
The US lost 12 between 1955 and 1980. Anything after that date is classified so there might be more.
Dozens of Soviet nukes are lying on the ocean floor, and maybe France and the UK have lost some as well. And nobody know what the Chinese have done, but chances are that everything is not hunkydory there as well.

I work in a big pharma company where we make drugs for genetic disorders and leukemia. All procedures and processes are designed to make it impossible for bad products to enter or leave the facility because the consequence of failure is the death of our patients.
If something goes wrong -even if there were no negative consequences- it is a BIG deal and ass will be kicked. We don't get to say 'no harm no foul' because we might not be so lucky next time.