Nuclear parts missing, says US report

Financial Times
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

20 June 2008

The US military cannot locate hundreds of sensitive nuclear missile components, according to government officials familiar with a Pentagon report on nuclear safeguards.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, recently fired both the airforce's chief of staff and secretary after an investigation blamed the airforce for the inadvertent shipment of nuclear missile nose cones to Taiwan.

According to previously undisclosed details obtained by the FT, the investigation also concluded that the airforce could not account for many sensitive components previously included in its nuclear inventory.

One official said the number of missing components was more than 1,000.

The disclosure is the latest embarrassing episode for the airforce, which last year had to explain how a bomber mistakenly carried six nuclear missiles across the US. The incidents have raised concerns about US nuclear safeguards as Washington presses other countries to bolster counter-proliferati on measures.

In announcing the departure of the top airforce officials earlier this month, Mr Gates said Admiral Kirkland Donald, the officer who led the investigation, concluded that both incidents had a "common origin" that was "the gradual erosion of nuclear standards and a lack of effective oversight by airforce leadership".

Mr Gates added that the Pentagon was evaluating the results of an inventory of all nuclear-related materials that had been conducted to re-establish "positive control" of such components.

Adm Donald briefed Congress on the results of his investigation on Wednesday. A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the classified report.

A senior defence official said the report "identified issues about record keeping" for sensitive nuclear missile components. But he stressed that there was no suggestion that components had ended up in the hands of countries that should not have received them.

However, Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, said the revelation was "very significant and extremely troubling" because it meant the US could not establish the positive control referred to by Mr Gates.

"It raises a serious question about where else these unaccounted- for warhead-related parts may have gone," said Mr Kimball. "I would not be surprised if the recent Taiwan incident is not the only one."

A senior military officer said the military leadership, including Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, was "deeply troubled" by the report.