Nuclear problems

Friday, June 6, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

In August six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles went missing from an Air Force base in North Dakota, and it took 36 hours for officials to find the missiles and properly secure them.

The missiles had been mistakenly loaded onto a B-52 bomber without the crew’s knowledge. The bomber then flew to Louisiana and the missiles sat unguarded for hours on the tarmac before they were tracked down.

This week the Defense Department said an investigation of the incident showed larger problems with the unit charged with securing the nuclear weapons at Minot Air Force Base. For example:

• One airman guarding nuclear weapons played a video game on his cell phone while on duty.

• Unarmed airmen were assigned to guard the route the Air Force planned to use to move nuclear weapons.

• During an exercise that simulated an attempt to steal a nuclear weapon, security guards didn’t go to their assigned areas.

A Defense Department report blamed poor training and supervision for the unit’s performance, which it deemed “unacceptable.” Talk about an understatement. It is unthinkable that in the post-9/11 world there could be problems with the oversight of the nation’s nuclear weapons.

The weapons are certainly a target for terrorists, who would love to have the power that a nuclear bomb would bring them. And although the military has always said that its procedures minimize the risk of losing a warhead to terrorists or an enemy nation, the Air Force’s handling of this situation undercuts its credibility.

Pentagon officials have pledged changes, and five officers directly involved were fired. And on Thursday the secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force chief of staff, the service’s top uniformed officer, were forced to resign, in large part because of their failure to take appropriate action to secure nuclear weapons. Still, this incident demands broader action. How pervasive are problems like this in the military? We need to find out soon.