Would you like fuses with that?

[Jasmin 0]

AF loses classified material...again.
Doesn't realise it until the recipient gives them a heads up...again.

Main difference being that the recipient was Taiwan.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/03/airforce_loosenukes_032508/

xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

[Gawain 0]

This was the other big story that I was going to post about. The fact that it took years to resolve, plus it rumbled the suspicions within China in ways we have yet to assess.

This, along with the rerouted missiles on the B-52 flight...If I were Chief of Staff of the Air Force, there would be checks and retraining on every procedure from handling nukes to cleaning the sink.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[nerdgirl 0]

So many interesting ways to go on this story:

Taken in connection w/the Minot incident – what’s going on with organization in the nuclear weapons stockpile management?

Are we watching the fulfilment of Charles Perrow’s conclusions that “Normal Accidents” with highly-coupled technologies will occur. Nuclear weapons being one where he asserts that the potential negative consequences to “Normal Accidents” outweigh the benefits. Or Scott Sagan’s “Limits of Safety” argument (at its most distilled) that when no one individual is in charge, likelihood of such incidents increase.

I found SecDef Gates’ memo curious in that it was not copied to the ATSD(NCB). (The ATSD(NCB) falls under USD(AT&L) but for nuclear weapons-related issues is supposed to report directly to the SecDef.)

Time to resurrect Admiral Rickover? (Don't know if Adm Donald, who SecDef Gates names in his memo to lead the investIgation, is a submariner of Rickover lineage.)

“Unless the individual truly responsible can be identified when something goes wrong, no one has really been responsible. With the advent of modern management theories it is becoming common for organizations to deal with problems in a collective manner, by dividing programs into subprograms, with no one left responsible for the entire effort. There is also the tendency to establish more and more levels of management, on the theory that this gives better control. These are but different forms of shared responsibility, which easily lead to no one being responsible—a problem that often inheres in large corporations as well as in the Defense Department.”

I don’t think this falls under violation of the Nuclear Supplier Group Guidelines or Zangger Committee. It does seem likely to be a violation of the Missile Technology Control Regime’s Category II export controls. The US is a member of the MTCR. Neither China nor Taiwan is member of the MTCR; China has its own. Technologies that can be used as fuses for re-entry vehicles (high acceleration gyros and accelerometers) are subject to control.

And then there’s the Chinese conspiracy theory …

VR/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

“Unless the individual truly responsible can be identified when something goes wrong, no one has really been responsible. With the advent of modern management theories it is becoming common for organizations to deal with problems in a collective manner, by dividing programs into subprograms, with no one left responsible for the entire effort. There is also the tendency to establish more and more levels of management, on the theory that this gives better control. These are but different forms of shared responsibility, which easily lead to no one being responsible—a problem that often inheres in large corporations as well as in the Defense Department.”

Oh, man! You just described my company.
That is going to get emailed around today!

Edited to add: Just found the entire text of Rickovers speech:

http://www.govleaders.org/rickover.htm

OUTSTANDING! Going to mail that link around the offices this morning.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[Gawain 0]

Quote

“Unless the individual truly responsible can be identified when something goes wrong, no one has really been responsible. With the advent of modern management theories it is becoming common for organizations to deal with problems in a collective manner, by dividing programs into subprograms, with no one left responsible for the entire effort. There is also the tendency to establish more and more levels of management, on the theory that this gives better control. These are but different forms of shared responsibility, which easily lead to no one being responsible—a problem that often inheres in large corporations as well as in the Defense Department.”

The problem is that it has been determined that in the case of the misrouted missiles last year, the processes and controls were circumvented completely. The US has been able to maintain excellent control of its nuclear stockpile for decades. Only as the cold war thawed have we seen degradation of our controls.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[kallend 2,150]

Quote

Quote

“Unless the individual truly responsible can be identified when something goes wrong, no one has really been responsible. With the advent of modern management theories it is becoming common for organizations to deal with problems in a collective manner, by dividing programs into subprograms, with no one left responsible for the entire effort. There is also the tendency to establish more and more levels of management, on the theory that this gives better control. These are but different forms of shared responsibility, which easily lead to no one being responsible—a problem that often inheres in large corporations as well as in the Defense Department.”

The problem is that it has been determined that in the case of the misrouted missiles last year, the processes and controls were circumvented completely. The US has been able to maintain excellent control of its nuclear stockpile for decades. Only as the cold war thawed have we seen degradation of our controls.

Oh, well, that's OK then

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[nerdgirl 0]

Quote

The US has been able to maintain excellent control of its nuclear stockpile for decades.

Concur.

In both the absolute & in a relative sense, the US nuclear weapons stockpile & individual nuclear weapons are incredibly secure. Additionally, the DoD’s nuclear facilities & complex are better secured – substantially – compared to the Dept of Energy’s.

Quote

Only as the cold war thawed have we seen degradation of our controls.

Really? I’m not sure I accept that … I’m not opposed to being convinced, either.

How many nuclear weapons have we lost in the ocean? Off the coast of Georgia? Dropped on Spain? How many nuclear incidents have there been? (Albeit smaller numbers than USSR/Russia.)

I would assert that the US is being more transparent with the response to (relatively) smaller incidents. Remember the Minot incident was originally a leak & there’s been discussion/speculation as to how isolated that incident truly was. Unsure of the chain of exposure w/r/t this one.

Many of the type of incidents that occurred before the Soviet Union collapsed won’t happen now because of changes in procedures and doctrine, i.e., no more training flights with nuclear weapons.

VR/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying