Dozens of nukes go offline in biggest ever US security failure

Published time: October 27, 2010 01:05
Edited time: October 28, 2010 13:14

According to military officials, last Saturday a computer failure caused disruptions in communication with some 50 nuclear missiles in Wyoming.

All in all the control over the missiles was unavailable for some 45 minutes, and officials don’t believe that the act was intentional.

However, the issue was so serious that the White House was briefed on it on Tuesday.

The Warren Air Force Base is home to one-ninth of the US missile stockpile.

Joseph Cirincione, the president of the Ploughshares Fund, a public grantmaking foundation focused on nuclear weapons policy and conflict resolution, cautioned against rushing to conclusions, but still agreed that the issue is very serious.

“We are talking about losing communication with a whole squadron of intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Cirincione told RT. “These are missiles that can travel the ocean, between the continents in about 30 minutes. Each of them is armed with a hydrogen bomb. Designed to actually have three warheads per missile, they were downgraded to just one. Still, each of these bombs is 10 times the size of the one that destroyed Hiroshima. So we are looking approximately at 500 Hiroshimas of destructing force.”

Comments (2)

Meslin 28.10.2010 08:47

It is surprising to me that nobody comments on such an important subject. How do you believe that the greedy creeps of the worldwide militarism could change their attitude if no pressure is put on them...Sorry Future Generations ! JCM

0

Undo

Meslin 27.10.2010 07:50

Yesterday, for an other topic related to Russia rearming herself, I suggested to do completely the opposite: Work with the BRIC countries, explain the real facts to develop a better World's governance, then force America to have a 50-50 sincere association and get ride of all those armaments. Because if nothing change, soon or later some idiots will use those nuclear weapons; or as it is explained in that topic, this could just happen accidentally. Sincerely... JCM

0

Undo

Add comment

By posting your comment, you agree to abide by our Posting rules

Log in to comment in full, or comment anonymously under character-limit restriction.

100 Text

– required fields

Register or

Name

Password

Show password

Register

or Register

Request a new password

Send

or Register

To complete a registration check
your Email:

or Register

A password has been sent to your email address

Edit profile

Name

New password

Retype new password

Current password

Save

Cancel

Follow us