New nuke-handling procedures issued

New nuke-handling procedures issued
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 25, 2008 19:24:53 EST

Five months after the Air Force lost track of six nuclear warheads and unknowingly flew them across the country, it issued a new set of procedures Jan. 17 directing how to handle and maintain its nuclear stockpile.

The procedures didn’t specifically cite the Aug. 29 incident involving Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and Barksdale Air Force Base, La., as a motivating factor, but some changes speak to issues that an Air Force investigation blamed for the unprecedented mistake.

A specific directive dictates that “nuclear and non-nuclear munitions/missiles” will not be stored in the same “storage structure, cell, or ( underground storage site )” according to Air Force Instruction 21-204.

The airmen with the 5th Munitions Squadron at Minot took two pylons carrying six advanced cruise missiles from the same storage site before loading them onto the B-52 Stratofortress bomber. Instead of removing two pylons of missiles armed with non-nuclear warheads — essentially dead weight to train with instead of a live nuke — the airmen signed out a pylon with nuclear warheads.

The new procedures also call for all non-nuclear missiles to have “stanchions/cones, ropes and placards” on them to clearly indicate the missile is not armed with a nuclear warhead. A placard will have the missile’s warhead status marked with labels like “trainer” or “empty.” According to two military officers, a missile’s status was marked only with numbers before.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/01/airforce_nuke_regs_080125/



uhc comment: I'm glad they figured out how to mark nukes. :sarcasm: