LANL and the Air Force: Partners in Excellence

Two serious incidents alerted the Department of Defense to the Air Force's need to drastically improve its handling of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons-related materiel. In 2006, four non-nuclear nose cone assemblies and their associated electrical components for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan. In 2007, an Air Force B-52 bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base (AFB) in North Dakota, unwittingly flew to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana with six cruise missiles onboard armed with nuclear warheads.

continue article...