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AP via Fox News:


Nuclear Warheads Unit Decertified


Air Force Abruptly Decertifies Nuclear Warheads Unit in New Mexico

AP

Decertification means members of the 898th Munitions Squadron cannot perform their usual duties with nuclear weapons.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Air Force has decertified a unit responsible for maintaining an estimated 2,000 nuclear warheads at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, but top military officials won't discuss specifics of the decision.

Decertification means members of the 898th Munitions Squadron cannot perform their usual duties with nuclear weapons.

Air Force officials declined to specify what that means.

Air Force officials also declined to disclose what concerns prompted the action, but Ron Fry, a spokesman for the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said Wednesday the move wasn't prompted by any risk to the public.

"There is no risk to security, safety or health," he said.

The New Mexico unit will be re-inspected and could be recertified by June, Fry said. Until then, he said qualified individuals from Air Force units based elsewhere will monitor nuclear weapons stored at Kirtland, located on Albuquerque's south side.

Fry said security and stewardship of nuclear weapons remains an Air Force priority, and squadrons assigned to handle nuclear assets are evaluated using rigid criteria.

"This is a business where, as part of the mission, you can't get a score of 99 out of 100 and pass. It's got to be 100 percent," Fry said.

According to an estimate by the nonpartisan Federation of American Scientists, an underground storage complex at Kirtland houses more than 2,000 nuclear warheads.

Neither Fry nor Jill Speake, spokeswoman for Kirtland's 377th Air Base Wing, would confirm the estimate.

Fry said commanders will develop and implement a plan aimed at bringing the New Mexico squadron up to Air Force standards.

"The decision to decertify was not made lightly," he said. "In this case, it was the right action to take to give the unit time to identify and implement necessary changes."

The decertification was requested by Brig. Gen. Everett Thomas, commander of the Nuclear Weapons Center at the New Mexico base.

Speake said Thomas had no public comment.

No need to man 'em anymore, China came and got 'em all.

That is not the sort of info. that should be made public, IMO.

Seems like a lot of that has gone on in the past several years. Always concerned me that we tipped our hand by letting the media report every little detail when it comes to our defense strategy.

in the 1950s the u.s.a.f. strat.air comm. had a special unit that transferred nukes around the various depots and kirkland was one of them im amazed to read it is still active. we also supported the strat. recon. units 91st etc.

It bad that this info is public, but it shows that somewhere in the chain of command they took action when things were not right. I suspect this will light a fire and they get back to standard asap.

Sounds like an IG Inspection pointed out a few Nukes were unaccounted for.

Doubt it was that extreme.

Procedural or paperwork error. Hope they didn't launch a plane with a nuke onboard again...

One transposed digit in a bazillion records might be enough to flunk an IG inspection of this kind. Not usually, but if that unit had been marginal the time before, and they found an error during a re-inspection, well ...

Wonder if they fired the wing commander?

That would be a clue as to how bad the screw-up was.

Someone's career became toast, certainly...

Sounds like a real goat rope that escalated too high in the chain of command for it to remain quiet. Clearly there is going to be a house cleaning at that unit. What I find interesting is that the Base Commander requested the decert.

Could it have been a new commander covering his 6 when he determined something was not quite right?

The Base Commander was not the only one to make that call.

They don't have a sense of humor if you score low on an IG or MSET inspection.

Geeze they count every turn in safety wire to make sure you have the proper number of twist. Don't miss them days at all...

I worked nuclear security in the 1970's at a missle base in Alaska. When we were inspected it was by various levels in the Army to include the Dept. of Army the missle defense branch and an IG inspection. Everytime we were inspected the major focus was security and the MP's got big share of the scrutiny.

My guess there is some missing paperwork and security failed some personal interviews by the inspectors to include revealing the duress code and nuclear accident/incident control plans. It's hard to hold the Base Commander responsible for questions and paperwork flaws that each and every security soldier should know. Now the Company Commander or security OIC may be at risk of loosing his job. kwg

Drat! Read that wrong, it was the head of the NWC, not the Base Commander, that requested it. My bad.

I think it''s time for me to go back out and shovel more snow.

Chuck

Keith,
My point exactly.

This issue involves MMS Squadron (bomb load crews), not SPS (Security Police).

[reference: support unit to kirkland and other nuclear depots] im really surprised this info even got out. its 54 years since i served with that support unit in the strat. air comm. and to this day very few base personal knew we existed even air force historians know little about us. things change with time.