WTF Mate

[AKIron]

Yikes, how could this have happened???

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmqA7P-MPnRJzQ5v9Xi6M5zdr9IA

[nirvana]

It shouldn't surprise me but it does, of how many people lost their jobs or had their certifications revoked over that.

[Redlegs]

I know someone that was going to be stationed at Minot as airport security but got transferred.

[Nefarious]

I might be crazy, but I don't see anything wrong with this.

So we carried some Nukes across country...

Aircraft Carriers, Submarines, other Naval Vessels sail the seas with gobs of Nuclear weapons.

[Vulcan]

Not as bad as having a nuclear reactor flying over your heads.

History
In May, 1946, the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project was started by the Air Force. Studies under this program were done until May, 1951 when NEPA was replaced by the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program. The ANP program contained plans for two B-36s to be modified by Convair under the MX-1589 project. One of the B-36s was to be used to study shielding requirements for an airborne reactor while the other was to be the X-6.

The first modified B-36 was called the Nuclear Test Aircraft (NTA), a B-36H-20-CF (Serial Number 51-5712) that had been damaged in a tornado at Carswell AFB on September 1, 1952. This plane was redesignated the XB-36H, then the NB-36H and was modified to carry a 1,000 kilowatt, air-cooled nuclear reactor. The reactor was operational but did not power the plane. Its sole purpose was to investigate the effect of radiation on aircraft systems. The NB-36H completed 47 test flights between 1955 and 1957. Based on the results of the NB-36H, the X-6 and the entire nuclear aircraft program was abandoned in 1957.

In the Sixties, the Soviet Union's Tupolev design bureau conducted a similar experiment using a Tupolev Tu-119, which was a Tu-95 bomber modified to carry an operational reactor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_X-6

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Vulcan, I think the concern over sea vessels, is the possibility of the aircraft to crash over a populated area.

[AKIron]

Originally posted by Nefarious
I might be crazy, but I don't see anything wrong with this.

So we carried some Nukes across country...

Aircraft Carriers, Submarines, other Naval Vessels sail the seas with gobs of Nuclear weapons.

The problem isn't that they were carried but rather that it wasn't supposed to happen. There are supposed to be extremely rigid controls and procedures in place when it comes to nukes.

[FrodeMk3]

What's really strange is how it hit the news so fast. Usually, something like a Broken Arrow is pretty hush-hush. I would not have thought that the DoD would have released this info.

[C(Sea)Bass]

You would think the pilots would have been quite confused over this.Getting ready to go fly somewhere and out of no where "BTW theres nukes on your plane".

[expat]

The problems isnt that the nukes flew , but that they werent supposed to be on the aircraft .Accountability for these things is taken quite seriously as im sure you know .Mind you i wouldve thought the crew wouldve noticed ???

[JB88]

Originally posted by FrodeMk3
What's really strange is how it hit the news so fast. Usually, something like a Broken Arrow is pretty hush-hush. I would not have thought that the DoD would have released this info.

perhaps it was released intentionally as a way of reminding certain folks in the world who happen to have 3000 operational centrifuges that we that we still have a rather sizable airborn nuclear stockpile....and bases to launch them from next door.

[4deck]

The following is an article I just read.

_____________________________ ________________________


 Staging Nukes for Iran?

Larry Johnson
No Quarter
Thursday September 6, 2007

Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That’s like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let’s call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can’t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

 His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Now maybe there is an innocent explanation for this? I can’t think of one. What is certain is that the pilots of this plane did not just make a last minute decision to strap on some nukes and take them for a joy ride. We need some tough questions and clear answers. What the hell is going on? Did someone at Barksdale try to indirectly warn the American people that the Bush Administration is staging nukes for Iran? I don’t know, but it is a question worth asking.

_____________________________ ______________________

[Maverick]

Interesting article there and it does have a bit of plausibility for it. There is another factor being that there was a bust for terrorist activity in Germany and also the anniversary of 9-11 is almost here. That would lend a bit of credibility to the theory.

I don't buy the preplanned operation bit though. Should the transport of the nukes have been a planned operation and sanctioned from higher HQ, they would not have started the post discovery actions by relieving the munitions commander. They would simply have had a cover story about moving part of the stock pile and or simply said they cannot confirm or deny the presence of nukes on that plane and at Barksdale.

This is starting to smell like a genuine screw up and the repercussions will end up costing several folks their career. You can bet that it will get a tremendous amount of coverage in political speeches in the coming months and it will no doubt even get recognition from lil' napolean, putin.

[Phaser11]

OK,
 What the real story here is the Air Force did not have positive control (On paper and operations) on the location of some of the nukes for about 3 hours.
 It was not that they were on a plane (guess how we move them to different areas in the US) it was they where not managed properly. If the process was followed the correct way, there would never been a story. Just another B-52 flying from point A to point B.
 Would it have been bad if the aircraft had crashed, sure, the convent could have detonated, but the nuke would have not. There would be radiation if the pit was breached, but no big bang.
 The other thing to think about is a C-17 flying from somewhere in the US with 25 2000 lb bombs on it. If it were to crash and the weapons cook off it would be a big bang (much bigger than the conventional in a nuke).

They lost positive control of the weapons. They were under AF control (air crew) all the time. The real questions are;
 Were they loaded by mistake?
 Who directed they were to be loaded and did that person (S) have the authority?
 Did the 2 man concept fail? If so, where?
 
Of course there are many other question that will be asked, many people loosing there jobs and all sorts of other fun the wing will have to deal with. Were we in danger?

NOT

[AquaShrimp]

"Broken Arrow" is an army unit that is in immediate danger of being overrun by enemy forces.  It requires that all available aircraft (no matter of what military branch they are in) come to the aid of that unit.

Unless the air force and the army have different meanings for the same term (which would be confusing), "Broken Arrow" does not refer to a missing nuclear weapon.