A couple blog posts from a military forum on nuclear weapons handling

[Flabbergasted]

Hey Guys

Where the rubber meets the road on this one, is the fact that operational Nuclear Weapons are NOT
carried in a bomb bay or on hardpoint pylons when the aircraft is being flown over the United States ... this practice was stopped many many years ago. Trans-shipment of Nuclear Warheads (or) weapons is via shipping containers and then ONLY in the cargo bays of cargo transport planes. The actual unpacking and loading of nuclear weapons onto a warplane inside the US is ONLY done setting on the tarmac at special sites and then ONLY as a Weapons Handling Excercise - the aircraft remains on the ground and is guarded the entire time that the weapon is outside the Special Weapons Bunkers.

IF ( *BIG IF* ), an aircraft is going to take off as part of a Special Operation, then a 'practice' weapon (or BDU), is used ... NOT A 'HOT' WEAPON. To all ordnance and former ordnance types, you ALL know the difference in the color/marking between a 'hot' weapon and a practice weapon ... the glaring blue color of a practice round can NOT be mistaken for a real weapon (and vice-versa).

How this FUBAR mistake could have happened is beyond me ... the newest member of a loading crew can tell at a glance the difference between hot and practice weapons ... they also should be aware of the SOP/instruction/guidelines ... after all, you learn all of that type of information when you go through the training pipeline prior to ever actually handling ANY real weapons.

That explains why the certification of every member of the loading crew was temporarrily suspended pending the investigations outcome ...

SOMEONE REALLY SCREWED THE POOCH ON THIS ONE.

The Air Force is not allowed to just take Nukes and fly them around without authorization, it is against the Law for DHS to authorize it, it is against the Law for the Base Commander to authorize it, it is against the Law for even the Secretary of the Air Force to authorize it.... I'm not going to get into the specifics on this Board of what needs to take place to move a Special Weapon from one place to another, but the United States Congress will get to the bottom of it, and many heads will roll.

[Hydra]

1. more reasons to think this was NOT an accident

although I seem to recall many "lost" weapons here in the US that have yet to be recovered.

[librechik]

2. maybe this is the only one that got caught.

I wonder where the rest of these missiles are right now. I read there are (38?) (385?)

These are fascinating threads indeed, if horrifying..

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. The more we dig into this

the more horrifying this is getting

And sadly seven years ago many of us would have gone FUBARed. SNAFFU

And all other crazy acronyms

A sign of the times are the things going through our collective heads, which are the stuff of nightmares