Feith Based Initiative At The Pentgon
Grover Norquist can pretty much pull the drain plug now; the job of eviscerating the United States Government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub" is about complete. The latest breaking news out of the Pentagon is that the US mistakenly shipped ICBM warhead nuclear triggering mechanisms to Taiwan.
The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it mistakenly shipped non-nuclear components for an intercontinental ballistic missile to Taiwan from a U.S. Air Force base in Wyoming.
…
At a Pentagon news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the misshipped items were four nose cone assemblies for ICBMs. He also said they were delivered to Taiwan in March 2005 and had been sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan.
…
”It is a component for the fuse in the nosecone for a nuclear system,” Wynne said. ”We are very concerned about it.”
Well, that’s understandable. Because thermonuclear warhead triggers probably look just like helicopter batteries, right? Oy and ugh.
Apparently, the Cheney/Bush Administration planting of "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the planet" at the Pentagon is paying dividends even after Doug Feith is long gone, because there seems to be some real competence issues over there, and, critically, with regard to our military’s handling of it’s nuclear weapons. As you might recall, it was not long ago that there were some empty quivers and bent spears out of another upper mid-west Air Force Base. In late August, 2007, six live nuclear cruise missiles went missing.
The nuclear weapons were “lost” for 36 hours after taking off on August 29 on a cross-country journey from the remote Minot air force base in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana. Major-General Richard Newton, air force deputy chief of staff, said there was an “unprecedented” series of procedural errors, which revealed “an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards”.
There is bound to be a lot of speculation and discussion on the latest incident that is just now being revealed in spite of the fact that it occurred all the way back in 2005. Hopefully, it will also renew the discussion of the Minot/Barksdale incident, which kind of faded from the national conscience (if you want a decent rundown on some of the various theories and weird facts on the Minot/Barksdale event, see here). So how will the Six Sigma management geniuses of the Bush Administration respond to these disturbing examples of incompetence with weapons of mass destruction? My bet is there is a big promotion and endowment with lifetime wingnut welfare in order for their top political lackeys in charge of Pentagon oversight.
UPDATE: Per William Ockham’s comment, the NYT story has indeed been updated substantially and the pentagon is now referring to the lost items as "fuses" for the warhead triggering mechanism, apparently in an attempt to distinguish what was mis-shipped from the entire trigger mechanism. I am somewhat suspicious of that, but it is the latest incarnation of the government’s story.
Well, at least they weren’t cruise missiles with armed nuclear warheads like those sent from Minot AFB in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.
I know what we should do! We should have the Inspector General look into this right away!
If Pentagon materials management was this messed up in 2005, just how bad is it now? I suppose the only silver lining is that the ICC may not punish us for dropping helicopter batteries on Iran.
What a lovely image; that’s the way this administration will go out. I can hardly wait to see the MOVIE…..last scene….close-up of bush and cheney faces in pilot gear, expressions of intense evil desire as they carry out their last mission… pull away shot—helicopter batteries falling on an empty cave…in the desert…sun setting behind an imposing mountain landscape…fading shot…symphonic music rises…THE END
Beautiful! Can we add in a shot of Cheney riding one of those battery boxes down to it’s impact kind of like the Slim Pickens character “Major Kong” in Dr. Strangelove? Like this!
I had similar idea
bmaz,
I think that article has changed since you posted this. It now says this:
At a news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the misshipped items were four electrical fuses for nose cone assemblies for ICBMs. He also said they were delivered to Taiwan in 2006 and had been sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan.
and
He said the fuses had been in four shipping containers sent in March 2005 from F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., to a Defense Logisitics Agency warehouse at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. It was then in the logistics agency’s control and was shipped to Taiwan ”on or around” August 2006, according to a Gates memo ordering Donald to investigate.
Thanks WO, better do an update I guess.
Over at FDL I was just muttering about one facet of the Minot incident which has always struck me as even stranger than other aspects of that nightmare. Somewhere, in the articles about the events up at Minot, it was mentioned that the ground crews had to work for hours on the B-52 that flew in to pick up the missles, because the aircraft’s attachment points were not set up to accept the pylon on which the cruise missles were mounted. Now, it seems to me that any aircraft which is intended to be armed quickly would have had underwing points in the expected configuration. So, just what was this B-52? Where had it been living? What was its tail number, and where was it supposedly based? Do we know where every surviving B-52 is? Are they all in USAF hands?
Don’t get too bent on that issue of pylons.
I used to flightcrew the B-52s at Barksdale up to the point of the end of the Cold War. I sat nuk-u-lar altert for years and know all about the issues surrounding working with and around nukes.
Not all pylons are equal. They are different based upon their function. Most US bombers are now configured for conventional operations, not nuclear ops. It could quite simply be that the B-52 in question was setup to accept a pylon for gravity bombs (as would be used in Afghanistan) rather than setup to lug cruise missiles (whether conventional or nuke).
The issue to focus on is not the pylon glitch. The issue(s) are ALL the many many failures that would have to happen to get a live nuke out of storage, mounted on the pylon, and past the preflight inspection by the nav/radar nav on the plane.
(Had to do some other work for a few hours.) Thanks for your comment. According to your experience, then, the B-52 would have been sent to pick up some criuse missiles but would not have been prepped for the job beforehand. My question is, why hadn’t it been prepped? If there are some planes that do the ferrying job routinely, then one of those would have had the proper fittings in place: apparently this wasn’t one of those. If it was not a plane that had carried cruise missiles, then why was it chosen to do the job? Not that you suggested this, but it would be consistent with what you wrote that the plane had wandered back into U.S. airspace from the Afghani theater — wouldn’t that be rather odd?
That article on the Minot/Barksdale missiles was interesting. First thing that occurred to me was that they were trying to “disappear” them…maybe to use as planted evidence???
I am certainly not sure that I would take everything in the Global Research article as gospel, but it seemed like a decent collection of the basic facts and a lot of the speculation and stories surrounding the incident, so i linked it as kind of a recollection refresher.
I take the list of “mysterious deaths” with a grain of salt (if that).
The details of all the things that have to go wrong, all the protections in place, that is where the gem is in the article. The closing stuff on deaths is a sad (and harmful) addition that is way too far down in 9/11 conspiracy territory.
There MAY have been a conspiracy of some kind, or it may have been mind-boggling stupidity and incompetence on a cosmic scale that will hold the prize for same for a geologic age, but the mysterious death bit is just too much.
Yeah, that is about right I think. I hesitated for a second to link it for that reason, but it was the best overview I could readily find at the time.
Wiki also has a fairly extensive compilation of info and sources on the Lost Nuclear Cruise Missiles.
“Wiki also has a fairly extensive compilation of info and sources on the Lost Nuclear Cruise Missiles.”
Also, don’t forget the analysis of FDL commentor Alfred Kelgarries last September at http://ratiocinatonsofasavageheart.blogspot.com/, with dozens of links to sources. This is actually a series of lengthy articles (see the left side-bar for other articles in the series, scroll down). He links the events to the bombing of the site in Syria that has never been fully explained, and suggests a failed attempt in collaboration with Israel to launch a nuclear attack on Iran, IIRC.
Bob in HI
Remove the comma at the end of the link to make it work.
Maybe that the missles were to meet with the fuses on Taiwan for lod
times sake, you know, a nostalgia thing… ” We’ll meet again… some
sunny day”.
What is a “Defense Logisitics Agency warehouse?” Is it run by *contractors* to the US military or by the military?
Great question. I wonder what other interesting goodies have passed through this “warehouse” and where they have gone.
And maryo2
This is the real story. Hope it is “found out” soon.
This is the best I can find prior to 2001:
And then this from 2005:
http://findarticles.com/p/arti….._n13652742
And this from January 2005:
My bold
Anyway, the whole privatization of the DLA since the 1990’s and even more so since Iraq has put $$$ in lots of pockets with a number of fraud issues and who knows what else…
Was this not the time when OMB was doing audits on contracts and shipments?
I think this news coming out now is no mistake…Perhaps A Jack A piece of evidence?
My bold
Sorry I missed that in #29!
I’ll bet it looks like this.
While the DLA is headed by a Lieutenant General, the employees within DLA are primarily civilian government employees.
As to contractors, there are certainly some, but I believe the vast majority of the 22,000+ employees are civilian government employees.
As to “contracting” itself, the DLA oversees (or not as reality tells us *g*) almost all DOD contracts.
How many nuclear parts have mistakenly been sent overseas that we don’t know about? And, if it’s just one part here, another part over there, it looks pretty much like incompetence…
How many things have to go wrong for this to happen? Simply amazing.
I am a little confused as to what precisely constitutes a fuse on a nuclear weapon. Are we talking about the electronics that would send the signals to begin the process of detonation?
Pretty much. A fuse is the initial igniter of the explosives that then compress the core. Plastique explosive requires a fuse, dynamite requires a fuse (electronic or old-fashioned firecracker style). The fuses must be mated with triggers and explosives in the correct configuration, to make the initiating part of a nuke.
Did Mr. Cheney de-classify news of this latest toothpick in the Dragon’s eye? Or did someone get FedEx’s shipping records and discover an “Oops”?
If the Pentagon shipped even the fuses, why would they not keep it secret? The shipment either represents an explosive policy Congress and public opinion would vehemently question, or it illustrates a deep incompetence in handling the most sensitive technology we have. I don’t believe our military is remotely that incompetent, which means the action reflects policy.
Mr. Cheney is fond of his surrogates: Bush, for example, or hard-right Israelis. Taiwan he probably sees in the same light vis a vis our chief creditor, foreign market and supplier of goods and services. So what’s the policy? Why hide it? Why indirectly reveal it now? Is Mr. Cheney running out of bad news in the Middle East and needs to drum up some from the inscrutable orient?
What scares the f*ck out of me about this situation is that not only have we compromised every relationship in the middle east — scaring the snot out of folks with that Minot incident — but that we’re likely tweaking hard the nose of the biggest sleeping giant with this shipment to Taiwan.
Jeebus…China may think for the long haul and be slow to move, but they’re not going to take this kind of crap lightly, given their intense possessiveness of Taiwan.
Praedor: you allude to a long list of steps it would take to ship a live nuke; doesn’t it at all bother you that during this long list of steps, not a single person in the chain of possession STOPPED the process?? It seems to me that the failing is even larger for this lack of empowerment to question OR the absolute complicity within the entire organization, OR both.
There was an investigation into the B-52 incident and one of its findings was that with the end of the Cold War there was a major dropoff in security in how nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons materials were treated. Basically, the whole area was seen as a career deadend and responsibility devolved down the chain of command as well from flag officers (generals, admirals) to midlevel types. So in some ways, it is surprising that there have not been more incidents.
I suspect there have been more, we just haven’t heard about them….
bmaz,
the six sigma reference may have been lost on a lot of folks but it made me laugh hysterically. Thank you.
Six Sigma? This administration’s curve would be a flat line.
All fun but probably over the top. We are from the sound of it talking about a bunch of electronic components, not anything truly nuclear.
Secondly, I bet you are looking at a mistake in reading the part code,I’d guess by maybe one digit somewhere in the middle. Incompetent certainly, but hardly earth shattering.
I could easily be wrong, but from what I recall from the basic discussion in one of the university physics classes I took long ago, the “triggering device” really is extremely critical to causing the explosion and maximizing the yield and that, arguably, it just as critical as the nuclear material. Perhaps Praedor or Professor Foland, if he is around, can refine and correct that thought for me.
You’re probably thinking of the initiator; the neutron source to get the chain reaction going. Although the timing is critical for igniting the HE, it’s a much easier problem nowadays with modern electronics than it was in the 40s. Getting neutrons at just the right time is still tricky (and I think the initiators used in the Trinity and Nagasaki bombs remain classified).
Two of my favorite books are the Richard Rhodes books on the making of the atom and helium bombs.
The first Atomic Bomb tested at Los Alamos on 7/16/45 @ 6AM. I know someone who was at Edwards AFB then and they knew something wuz up.
The fat man device was dropped on Nagasaki.
From the first atomic bomb diagram
Neutron initiator?
Whoops not helium, but a little different part of the Atomic Table–hydrogen was the subject of the 2nd Rhodes book.
“Neutron initiator?”
It’s that little acorn-like thing that sits in the center of the plutonium sphere. You need neutrons at just the right time in order to get the plutonium atoms to start splitting (in turn, they release neutrons with each fission, thereby multiplying the effect). Since you’re using implosion to create a critical mass, you might as well use implosion to time your neutron release as well, so the initiator is designed to generate neutrons when it gets crushed. The design and the materials used are classified, even from the earliest bombs, but probably well known by people with an interest in nuclear physics. The size of the plutonium sphere used in fat man is also classified, but the doorstop photo in Rhodes gives it away.
I asked “neutron initiator?” because some people have theorized it wasn’t, but I believe it was. I noticed the British reclassified some of their material in that link to be unclassified 2014, although I’m not sure why they reclassified.
I should say first I give credit to JimWhite@2 for the best laugh I’ve had all day.
That was basically what I was told by a few of the Engineers that designed those things. The plant where they originally made is a few miles from here and I have visited it many times through the years. It is now closed but the huge vibration and impact test machines are available for rent along with some of the original engineers. (Engineers love to talk trade and that kind of information is not specifically classified).
That could be fun: a new parlor game of figuring out the most improbable objects that are ‘one digit apart’ in the military’s parts lists.
From the article –
Wynne said that Taiwanese authorities notified U.S. officials of the mistake, but it was not clear when the notification was made. He said the fuses had been in four shipping containers sent in March 2005 from F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., to a Defense Logisitics Agency warehouse at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. It was then in the logistics agency’s control and was shipped to Taiwan ”on or around” August 2006, according to a Gates memo ordering Donald to investigate.
Thus we need to know who got the contract for the warehouse at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. And we need to know if the contract was no-bid, or if the contractor was added to an approved vendors list at a late date (after doing work for the Vice President, like MZM).
http://www.globalsecurity.org/…..y/hill.htm
I might see the art of mistake as a motive for the fuse shipment, a sort of reminder pushback while the memory of the Kuomintang’s recent improved postelectoral status in Taiwan remains fresh. TheArmyTimes has remained silent since its October 2007 noticing 60+ individuals were decertified from their posts after shipping some lookalike nuclear arms to Barksdale last September.
MaryO2
I’m reading a report right now that has info on MZM @ Hill. I have to run out for a few but will post findings and quotes when I return.
From klynn @ 36’s link. This is not talking about nuclear detonators or missile parts, but is more generally a proposed plan for Hill Air Force Base (an Air Force Materiel Command base).
“In its 2005 BRAC Recommendations, DoD recommended to …
This fourth recommendation would achieve economies and efficiencies that would enhance the effectiveness of logistics support to forces as they transition to more joint and expeditionary operations. This recommendation would disestablish the wholesale supply, storage, and distribution functions for all tires; packaged petroleum, oils and lubricants; and compressed gases used by the Department of Defense, retaining only the supply contracting function for each commodity. The Department would privatize these functions and would rely on private industry for the performance of supply, storage, and distribution of these commodities. By doing so, the Department could divest itself of inventories and eliminate infrastructure and personnel associated with these functions. This recommendation would result in more responsive supply support to user organizations and would thus add to capabilities of the future force. The recommendation would provide improved support during mobilization and deployment, and the sustainment of forces when deployed worldwide. Privatization would enable the Department to take advantage of the latest technologies, expertise, and business practices, which translates to improved support to customers at less cost. It centralizes management of tires; packaged petroleum, oils, and lubricants; and compressed gases and eliminates unnecessary duplication of functions within the Department. “
Agree. The recommendation on the logistics transport is what I am trying to nail down…
klynn, Thanks for the information. I also must run for now. I will check back later this afternoon.
OT – Did anybody else see this dkos piece on USG regional “fusion centers”?
Thanks for the link. I hadn’t seen the diary, but Fusion Centers were a topic of considerable discussion at a recent membership meeting of the ACLU that I attended. When they started setting these things up, state and local authorities thought they would be a two way street with the Feds. It hasn’t turned out that way, so state and local police and not too happy. Further, as bmaz would certainly expect, the scope of information (and parties who access it) has broadly expanded from the original intent. Here’s a link to the ACLU report that came out last December.
Periodic table–long all nighter and now it’s showing up.
An initiator is a small “pit” whose absence serves to failsafe a nuke weapon from critical masss explosion. As such, it is withheld from the weapon until the weapon is ready to be armed, at which time it is physically inserted into the core of the weapon and the weapon is now fully armed. Insertion is done either by a human or, in the case of a missile,robotically upon remote command.
Detonation is accomplished by sub-micro-second control of electronic impulses, using thyristors or such, to accomplish perfect timing of blasts to maximize the crushing density at the core center. This prolongs as much as possible the containment of the nuke explosion caused by the now-critical mass [the crushed density of what was, say, a plutonium shell] being set-off by the initiator’s neutron flux. The “pit” is designed for far-insufficient flux to activate the Plut shell until such shell is crushed to critical density.
The thyristors of that quality are controlled materials. Use of lesser quality,[of pulse timing] would result in poor explosive yields.
Confusion is the deliberate result of using words like “fuze”, which mean something that tells you nothing.
For a link…google “Krytron” or “Pulse Based Switching Devices, an Overview” by Pasley.
OK. I’m still pouring through GAO reports, DOD reports and contracting reports but here is a nice bit from 1998 and I’m in the process of pulling up the contracts from 2005 for this:
(my bold)
The point:
As of 2001, DLA had contracted out as direct delivery their aviation battery inventory management. How on earth could fuses get shipped if batteries were ordered? A totally separate, direct delivery supplier was supplying batteries. Additionally, a separate prime vendor program supplier was contracted by 2001 for weapons systems. I do not think this was a matter of “close” inventory numbers.
As of 2003, DLA privatized inventory management was large and had gone through at least three GAO best Practices Audits performed by GAO by 2001.
Here is a link to the training manual for DLA regarding inventory management system use and some quick information:
Here is the document:
http://www.dlis.dla.mil/PDFs/linkguide.PDF
I did a “stint” with one of the largest logistics companies in the US a long time ago. So, my background is dated. Still, in looking at the “practices” it seems surprising that it was not “picked up” on, especially after the GAO “hounded” DLA on their “best practices” and noted in three reports (possibly more – I’m still researching) that the privatized weapons parts inventory management needed more security and was identified several times during the Clinton Administration as a potential security breech area (one of the top 25 security breech concerns).
So we know Warren AFB and Hill AFB inventory management by 2003 in many areas was privatized. We know DLA had privatized aviation battery inventory management and weapons parts management.
I’m still trying to track down the contracts.
Here’s a great case study to read. It is a GAO case study presented on June 25, 2002 before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans
Affairs, and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform. There is too much to quote from it.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/…..2873t.pdf.
Just an interesting read for anyone who might be interested in our DLA inventory “best practices” concerns…
You ever get the feeling that “privatizing” things makes them ultimately more expensive, less efficient, less accountable and less secure? Very nice work Klynn.
Can anyone tell me why Doug Feith and the other radicals that created, cherry picked and disseminated false WMD intelligence are still walking the streets?
Whatever happened to ACCOUNTABILITY? What ever happened to the completion of all of Phase II of the SSCI?
What a country what a justice system what oversight? Clinton nailed for lying about a blowjob. The folks who are responsible for an INTELLIGENCE SNOWJOB are still running free. The results of that INTELLIGENCE SNOWJOB has been hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries and millions of Iraqi people displaced.
Call me a peasant call me ignorant I just do not get it when our congress considers holding a President accountable for lying about a bj and then congress does not hold those responsible for the Intelligence snowjob ACCOUNTABLE. It seems this would be the very least they could do for those who have needlessly lost family members in an unnecessary and immoral war. The very least!.
Thanks bmaz.
And to answer your question…Yep!
Here’s yet another link from 2005 on DLA privatization:
A recent review of the top weapons system supply chain contractors with whom DLA has established strategic supplier alliances, compared to contractors from whom the military services buy DLRs, demonstrates the effectiveness of this decision. Over 61 percent of the dollars spent showed at least one overlapping military service; 50 percent showed at least two overlapping military services; 18 percent had at least three, and 4 percent overlapped all four services.
Link here:
http://www.military-logistics-…..DocID=2202
Here’s some more:
Link here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/…..afps03.htm
ICBM Systems Program Office
Contractor for SPO is TRW. More here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/…..bm-spo.htm
Since the parts seem to originate at Warren AFB in Wyoming
I would want to know if the fuses were new or from decommissioned missiles. I would think decommissioned parts would be harder to track.
Just thinking out loud.
BTW:
TRW was bought out by Northrup Grumman July 1, 2002. Feith was once counsel to them.
Remember, TRW’s contract was a 1 year renewable for 14 years. (The winner of the Pakistan F-16 contract too).
Hey bmaz, why the “nose cone parts assembly” demo during the presser yesterday?
The more I read, the more questions I have…
I mean here are my hmmms…
Warren AFB – Wyoming- Cheney – Northrup Grumman – Feith – AIPAC – Bolton – Taiwan
I was surprising reminded that outside of AIPAC, Taiwan was one of our larger lobbiests in DC.
Now I hope it was a transcribed number…
http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.c…..perle.html
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
sibel and feith and perle?