Nuclear handling errors examined at Whiteman
Mar 16, 2010, 10:20 AM
By RICK MONTGOMERY, The Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Whiteman Air Force Base was among five U.S. air bases where errors were uncovered last summer in storing or tracking components for nuclear weapons.
At the Knob Noster, Mo., home of the B-2 stealth bomber, the problem was lax control over who could get inside a locked vault, according to a recently released report of the Air Force Audit Agency.
An Air Force spokesman said all problems found at the bases have been fixed. But auditors' findings suggest better care of nuclear weapons-related material is still needed.
The report comes two years after the embarrassing disclosure that nuclear fuses mislabeled as helicopter parts had been shipped by accident from a Utah air base to Taiwan.
At least for Whiteman's 509th Bomb Wing, the lesson was simple: When people switch to new assignments, make sure they no longer have access to vaults holding parts used in arming and releasing nuclear weapons.
The audit agency's inspections in July found that two airmen who knew the combination to the vault's lock had left Whiteman, while four others who were assigned to other units on base still possessed swipe cards used to enter the heavily restricted storage area.
"There are literally hundreds of areas that are inspected at Whiteman each year, and the auditors found two deficiencies (with the access cards and the combination not being changed) that were quickly corrected," said Brig. Gen. Robert Wheeler, base commander. "We welcome inspections because they help us achieve the highest standards necessary for stewardship of our nation's most precious assets."
The report faulted the bomb wing's Logistics Readiness Squadron for not following procedures that require lock combinations to be altered and badges deactivated when approved personnel are transferred or discharged.
As for inspections that were made of eight bases, the Air Force Times reported:
The 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana missed 48 percent of the 711 nuclear weapons-related materials that should have been tracked in the Air Force's inventory. A follow-up inventory accounted for all of the items.
At Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, 52 classified nuclear-related items were improperly stored in a maintenance hangar where the keys were not correctly secured and access was not restricted to authorized personnel.
At three bases, no inventory or control problems were found.
"It sounds very minor to me. At least we know someone is checking and doing the job," said Robert S. Norris, who tracks weapons supplies worldwide for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "With these weapons spread all over the place, we just have our fingers crossed that they're well-guarded."
Whiteman is thought to possess about two dozen fully assembled nuclear bombs, including the ground-penetrating B61-11, Norris said. A base spokesman, Lt. Col. Jay Delancy, said parts at Whiteman are stored in about 70 vaults — "anything from the size of a closet to a whole building."
When Wheeler arrived last March to command the 509th Bomb Wing, a top priority was to improve management of the nuclear arsenal. A year earlier, a Pentagon task force headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger had revealed Air Force sloppiness in nuclear weapons handling.
In addition to the nuclear triggers inadvertently shipped to Taiwan, a bomber flying from North Dakota to Louisiana in 2007 was found to be carrying cruise missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.
While Whiteman's fleet of 20 stealth bombers has dropped conventional bombs in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, the bombers were built to carry nuclear weapons and stand ready for that duty.
