September 6, 2007

US Air Force in Security error

It appears that despite what we understand about the chain of command in the US military, that is that the Commander in Chief is the only person who can authorise the arming and use of nuclear weapons. This appears to be not true or that the US Air Force has made a terrible blunder.

Earlier in the year it was decided that the advanced cruise missile system would be scrapped, and so they needed to be transported to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, to be decommissioned.

On the 30th August some were flown form the base in North Dakota and everything would have appeared to go fine, except for one minor detail. Five of the nuclear cruise missiles were armed and ready to use! How this happened is not known, but if there were an accident, or something worse, the aftermath would be just too terrible to even think about.

Source [FAS]

Filed Under Security