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Report on nuke-hauling incident delayed

Even though Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne wanted a report about an Aug. 30 B-52 weapons-loading mistake on his desk by last Friday, it will take a little longer to generate, his office said.

“The investigation is ongoing and is expected to continue for at least the next several weeks,” Jennifer Bentley, a spokeswoman for Wynne’s office, said Sept. 14.

The incident occurred after a munitions crew at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., left nuclear warheads on six Advanced Cruise Missiles on a 2nd Bomb Wing bomber that returned to Barksdale Air Force Base.

“Although there was never any public danger, the munitions transfer error that occurred was unacceptable and a clear deviation from our exacting standards,” Bentley said. “We are committing the appropriate time and resources to ensure, beyond any doubt, that our munitions are safe, secure and absolutely reliable 100 percent of the time.”

Air Force Times broke the story Sept. 5. Within hours, the commander of the munitions squadron at Minot was relieved of all duties and the crews that loaded the missiles were decertified from such work.

According to published reports, the Air Force has not decided what to do with the retired Advanced Cruise Missile airframes but is looking at such uses as modifying them to carry conventional warheads.

The retirement is part of the reduction of strategic nuclear warheads under the 2002 SORT agreement, or Moscow Treaty, which limits U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear warheads to a maximum of 2,200 by 2012.