This is What the End of Your Career Looks Like

Somewhere, a squadron commander is getting a whole lot of angry, unpleasant paperwork organized into three nice, neat little stacks.

Air Force officials say three ballistic missile crew members in North Dakota fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices earlier this month, triggering an investigation by military and National Security Agency experts.

The probe found that the missile launch codes were not compromised, but the incident comes on the heels of a series of missteps by Air Force that has put the service under intense scrutiny.

Officials called the incident a "procedural violation," and said the Minot Air Force-based crew had code devices that were no longer usable, since new codes had been installed in the missiles.

Buh-bye, guys. Valid codes or not, a precedent has been set and it's one that resides firmly in the "bad" column.

--WS

A Little Help, Please

Hey, if you see a crate full of M16s, could you, you know, help a dude out or something and not get all huffy?

Already smarting from a high-profile misplacement of nuclear missile components, the accidental burning of radioactive uranium and a friendly fire incident at the Utah Test and Training Range, Hill Air Force Base officials on Wednesday acknowledged that they were searching for a case of missing M-16 assault rifles.

Base personnel said security was out in full force Tuesday as the officials attempted to locate the shipping case, which contained a dozen of the military's standard small-caliber weapon.

"It's possible that the rifles fell off a government vehicle while being moved from one location on base to another," 75th Air Base Wing commander Linda Medler said in a statement.

She called the recovery of the missing weapons "our top priority."

Hill officials were silent on further details, including which unit on base was responsible for the loss, citing a "continuing investigation."

Officials asked for assistance from the public, saying that anyone with information about the loss should contact base security or their local law enforcement agency.

Gates calls a time out

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has ordered the Air Force, Navy and DLA (Defense Logistics Agency) to account for every piece of the nuclear arsenal and record the serial number to assure that everything is accounted for, in the wake of two humiliating fuck-ups.

The memo was made public within the last couple of hours, but it was issued soon after the news broke that trigger fuses for the Minuteman ICBM were mistakenly sent to Taiwan in place of aircraft parts - because they are so easily confused with your every-day helicopter battery. Shoot, they sit right there on the shelf next to one another...[/snark]

The inventory review, which will involve thousands of items, is due to Gates in 60 days. Pentagon officials said the request was ordered, in part, because this latest incident comes after the August 2007 accidental flight of six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles on a B-52 bomber across the country.

"At a minimum, your report should include the results of the inventory and your personal assessment of the adequacy of your respective department or agency's positive inventory control policies and procedures," Gates said in the memo.

Four officers --- including three colonels -- were relieved of duty last year after a B-52 bomber mistakenly carried six nuclear warheads from North Dakota to Louisiana, the Air Force said.

A six-week investigation uncovered a "lackadaisical" attention to detail in day-to-day operations at the bases involved in the incident, an Air Force report said.

This action amounts to a de facto stand down of a significant portion of the Air Force, and frankly, that isn't happening a moment too soon.

China Reacts

The Chinese reaction is somewhat mild, to be honest.

(CBS/AP) China on Wednesday strongly protested the U.S. military's mistaken delivery to Taiwan of intercontinental ballistic missile electrical fuses, demanding an investigation and steps to "eliminate the negative effects and disastrous consequences."

In a statement posted on the ministry's Web site, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China had brought a "serious representation" to Washington and expressed "strong displeasure" over the error.
The U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday that the Air Force had mistakenly shipped to Taiwan four electrical fuses designed for use on intercontinental ballistic missiles. The fuses have since been recovered and an investigation launched.

At the Pentagon, CBS News National Security correspondent David Martin reports that although the U.S. is constantly wringing its hands about the nightmare scenario of loose nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, this was another egregious case of the Pentagon not being able to keep track of its own nuclear weapons.

While the shipment did not include nuclear materials, the error is particularly sensitive because Beijing vehemently opposes U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governed island that China considers its own territory. Four of the cone-shaped fuses were shipped to Taiwanese officials in fall 2006 instead of the helicopter batteries they had ordered.

Hey, at least we're getting to the bottom of these things in a timely manner. And I don't know how you confuse these things with helicopter batteries, but whatever. They were obviously sent to Taiwan to avoid detection with a built-in plausible deniability story concocted to make it all seem innocent. These items were obviously sent through a reverse engineering process, whereby the Taiwanese could quietly study and develop their own versions, if not set up something where they could make these things for us. Money changed hands, the transfer of the technology was done, and they'll probably get away with this.

The bottom line is, someone needs to sweep out the God boys and restore trust in the leadership of the United States Air Force.

Exactly What We Don't Need (One More edition)

I guess you just need to expect incompetence from these people...

MSNBC BREAKING NEWS
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it mistakenly shipped non-nuclear ballistic missile components to Taiwan from a U.S. Air Force base in Wyoming.
It said the items have been returned to the United States.
At a news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said that the misshipped items were four nose cone assemblies for ballistic missiles. He also said it was sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan, he said.
Wynne said the matter is under investigation.
Ryan Henry, the No. 2 policy official in the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said President Bush was notified of the mistake and the actions to recover the items. Henry called the mistake "disconcerting" and intolerable.

So, now the question is this: given that the Air Force has now shipped nuclear weapons across the country without properly accounting for them, and given this latest slip-up, who's being fired?

Shouldn't Gates just be wholesale cashiered on this one, to reassure the Chinese that we're serious about looking for accountability on this matter? I'm thinking that if we fired Gates, Wynne and a few others, that might do the trick.

Don't hold your breath.

Update I - Blue Girl - 10:20 central

It is time for the House and Senate Armed Services committees to call for and demand a global stand-down of the Air Force. The errors that are happening are too frequent and too egregious and the incompetence of the godboys at the top represents a clear and immediate threat to the national security. When the next president takes over, the Air Force needs a top to bottom evaluation, and a whole bunch of retirements need to be forced, and reviewed. Some of the incompetents with eagles and stars on their collars need to be retired as O-3's by congress. We take this all very personally in this household. We gave the Air Force the best years of our lives. We want to be proud of that again.

UPDATE II - PALE RIDER

Oh, NOW YOU TELL US!!!

At a Pentagon news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the misshipped items were four electrical fuses for nose cone assemblies for ICBMs. He also said they were delivered to Taiwan in 2006 and had been sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan.

The fuses were manufactured for use on a Minuteman strategic nuclear missile but contain no nuclear materials.

"This could not be construed as being nuclear material. It is a component for the fuse in the nosecone for a nuclear system," Wynne said. "We are very concerned about it."

Wynne said the matter is under investigation. He said the Taiwanese authorities notified U.S. officials of the mistake. He said the fuses had been in a shipping container sent from one U.S. Air Force base to another in 2005 and then delivered to Taiwan in 2006.

Well, I guess that's okay then! It happened several years ago! No big deal! Nothing like disclosing these kinds of things in a timely fashion, huh?

UPDATE III - Blue Girl - 11:00 AM

Without saying anything that I shouldn't - my husband spent his career working on electronics systems of ICBMs, so please believe me when I tell you this...it isn't about the nuclear material, and stressing that fissibles were not compromised, move along, nothing to see here...is a headfake.

These fuses are not what civilians think of when they hear the word "fuse." They are top-secret components in the electrical systems of ICBMs. The warhead is the easy part of a missile system. The hard part is the delivery vehicle - you don't deliver a nuclear payload by oxcart, you know. Compromising the electronics is possibly providing the final piece of information to a rogue state like North Korea that is openly developing missile technology to allow them to finally have a weapon that will reach the west coast. This is a big god-damned deal, and careers need to end over it.

UPDATE IV - Blue Girl - 11:30 AM

I just got off the phone. I called the Armed Services committee of both chambers (House: 202-225-4151. Senate 202-224-3871.) I was very respectful, but I also got my point across, that I am not a hysterical housewife obsessing over cable news - or at least not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, hysterical housewife, anyway. That was dispelled when I gave them my husbands name, rank, dates of service, and ELAB AFSC.

Both of the staffers I spoke with were very polite and extremely concerned about this incident. They understood that it isn't about the fissibles, it's about the delivery vehicle. When I said the Air Force needed to stand down globally, the SASC staffer said "I can assure you something will come of this."

I am taking him at his word, as Senator Levin's proxy, but I will be watching just the same.