Sean Says:

September 6th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Sean: What are those orange things on the bombs? Parachutes? Flotation devices? Thanks.

Reply: Each weapon is equipped with a large parachute to prevent the weapon from crashing into the ground – and the high explosives potentially detonating – in case of an accident. HK

Correction: Rick, who says he was a nuclear weapons technician for year, sent me this helpful correction to my guess about the orange bags on the end of each weapon in the transport plane: “In this particular case, they hold the fins that were removed when double-stacking the weapons. There are other uses (depending on the weapon type) when the weapons are (were) on alert or to be otherwise loaded.” Thanks Rick. HK

It appears from investigating the resources on the ground in Barksdale, that five weapons were on the pylon. Minot is insisting that the pylon was “full” with six armed missiles. With your expertise, do you have any evidence that could shed light on how such a mistake could have naturally occurred, particularly with all the redundant systems in place to protect the loss of nuclear material?

Reply: The incident was first reported to have included five nuclear ACMs, but that appears to have been a mistake and the number reported now is six.

As for evidence that can shed light on how this could happen, I will refer to what I have already written about this in this blog, and stated in interviews with news papers and magazines (use Internet search engines to search for those stories, or look here). I have not seen additional information that says otherwise, although there have been many conspiracy theories as you can image.

Beyond that, we’re all waiting for the findings of the internal investigation that is underway in the Air Force and other agencies. In addition to that, Congress has indicated that it intends to hold hearings, although it is unclear at this point whether they will be open to the public. HK

If it is not swept under the rug, it is spinned in the desinformation mode big time according to the Washington Post.

There are times to be optimistic and times to ask tough questions. But questions must be answered honestly.

I do think you do an excellent job but find that replies to post are often of a very optimistic view.

Peace and Love wishes from an old Hippy.

Reply: Thanks for the peace and love, but I still don’t see this story being “brushed under the carpet by mainstream media.” For sure, the DOD may have an interest in spinning this in a certain way, but I think their focus now is more on damage control and figuring out what actually happened. HK

Reply: The chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committee early on sent Defense Secretary Gates a letter stating their concern and interest in this matter. While DOD is finishing its investigation, I suspect Congress is in a wait-and-see position pending the explanation DOD presents later. If that explanation or the changes it triggers in the nuclear weapons control systems are in sufficient then we could very well see a hearing in Congress.

But this whole mess is about restoring confidence, both domestically and internationally, in the U.S. control of nuclear weapons. So DOD has to find some real explanation and present a convincing fix to restore that confidence. HK

Furthermore, I read that these warheads had a variable range of explosive power. Was this due to an adjustment mechanism, or were the warheads constructed with different weights depending upon the explosive power required?

Would then, the warhead have to be weighed before loading, so trajectory information would [not] compromise its flying ability?

Reply: The W80 warhead weighs somehwere around 270 lbs. So it would have been a considerable discrepancy between the two pylons. However, unarmed missiles are thought to carry a ballast in the empty warhead section to balance the missile during transport, so there would be no weight discrepancy.

As for the yield, the W80 has a variable yield of 5-150 kilotons. It is not clear how the yield is selected, but it might be an electronic system that allows the ground crew or bomber crew to chose between less than a handful pre-set yield options depending on the mission. HK

Reply: No, this was a transport incident, not a nuclear accident. There are no reports (or rumors) of any form of contamination or explosion. HK

Could you share any insight as to where within the process, moral, discipline, and training could have broken down, if it is, as we both truly wish, just an accident?

Reply: So far I haven’t heard anything that suggests anything other than a mistake – albeit a serious one.

Most of the reactions have focused on how the nuclear procedures could go wrong. But if a mislabeling had already occurred in the igloos and the outside crew believed they were handling unarmed missiles, then many of the security procedures that would have applied for nuclear missiles might not have kicked in.

We can speculate all we want, but until the investigation is completed it’s all speculation. And the investigation, so I hear, is now expected to take significantly longer than first envisioned. HK

One other thing is that Barksdale has no nukes decommisionning facilities, it is a transit base to the Middle-East.

So were we trying to sneak nukes to a war theater for possible use in the near future?

Were there 6 nukes loaded on the bomber and 5 recovered after they were left unchecked for many hours?

Was it the chinese hackers or White House insiders that directed the show?

Afterall we need to fend off all mighty Iran or they may take over the world.

Something stinks here and it is getting brushed under the carpet of mainstream media.

Reply: The incident has certainly raised many questions, but the ones you raise are – I believe – not only the wrong ones, but some that actually confuse the issue. Because I have noticed how unsubstantiated and conspiratory rumors about this incident have spread on the Internet, I for one want to counter some of their claims here:

First, I don’t see anything getting brushed under the carpet by mainstream media. On the contrary, the media I talk to (and I’ve talked to a lot) is truely surprised by this incident and trying hard to explain what actually happened. It is entirely probable that this was an error.

Second, I have seen nothing that suggests that the transport of nukes from Minot to Barksdale might indicate the US was trying to “sneak nukes to a war theater for possible use in the near future” against Iran or anyone else. If anyone wanted to “sneak” nukes into the Middle East, the wing of a B-52 bomber would be the last place to put them. But the administration is not trying to bring nuclear weapons into the Middle East – covertly or otherwise – because it doesn’t have to. It already has nuclear bombs in Italy and Turkey and others onboard Trident submarines cruising the Atlantic Ocean.

Third, Barksdale AFB is not more of a transit base to the Middle East than other major bases in the region. Although the base’s 2 Bomb Wing has conducted operations in the Middle East, so has the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot. To my knowledge, flight routes are determined by distance, weather conditions, and location of hostile forces.

Fourth, contrary to what you suggest, Barksdale AFB is a fully certified nuclear weapons storage facility that has all the capabilities for storing and – if necessary – inactivating nuclear cruise missiles. Actual dismantlement of the nuclear warheads, however, can only happen at the Pantex Plan in Texas. It only underscores that the transport probably was an error.

Fifth, your question whether it was “the Chinese hackers or White House insiders that directed the show” is amazing for many reasons, but firstly because there is absolutely no credible information in the public domain showing that Chinese hackers somehow have effected the movement of the nukes. Nor is there any evidence that the White House was involved, other than being informed about it after it happened.

Confidence in the security and control of nuclear weapons must be restored. But the Minot mystery can only be solved if we stick to the facts. HK

Could it truly be a case of human error? “Let’s install these conventional weapons,…boy, are they heavy today… underneath this B52? Pay no attention to those red plastic covers.” With a 39 year track record of no nukes on bombers, it is just so hard to buy….How many errors in a row would be required for an event like this to happen?

I can’t get how the Air Force could have “mistaken” live nuke missiles for dud bound to the boneyard, loaded them on bombers, and moved them around the country. That’s a BIG mistake…