US nuclear missile crew fell asleep on job

"Decisive and urgent steps" are needed to restore the US Air Force's respect for nuclear weapons after three ballistic missile crew members fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices, US authorities said today.

The incident at a base in North Dakota, just south of the Canadian border, is the latest in a series of nuclear mistakes which have plagued the US Air Force in recent months.

In August last year a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown from Minot Air Force Base, the site of the latest incident, to Barksdale Air Force Base in the southern state of Louisiana.

And in August 2006, four Air Force fusing devices for ballistic missile nuclear warheads were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan.

Defence secretary Robert Gates announced a sweeping shake-up of the Air Force leadership last month, blaming them for failing to deal fully with the series of nuclear-related incidents.

Ike Skelton, chairman of the US House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee, called the latest incident very troubling.

"The new Air Force leadership, when confirmed, must take decisive and urgent steps to restore the culture of respect that our strategic weapons deserve and our national security demands," he said.

An investigation by military and National Security Agency experts into the latest incident found that the missile launch codes were outdated and remained secure at all times.

Air Force Colonel Dewey Ford, a spokesman at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said: "This was just a procedural violation that we investigated. We determined that there was no compromise."

He said the Minot-based crew had code devices that were no longer usable because new codes had been installed in the missiles.

But the lapse on July 12 was serious enough to prompt an investigation by the 91st Missile Wing, in conjunction with codes experts at the 20th Air Force, US Strategic Command and the National Security Agency.

No one has been punished, but a continuing review by base commanders will determine what, if any, actions will be taken against the sleeping crew members.

The three crew members, who are in the 91st Missile Wing, were in the missile alert facility about 70 miles from Minot.

That facility includes crew rest areas and sits above the underground control centre where the keys can be turned to launch ballistic missiles.

US officials said the three officers were behind locked doors and had the old code components, large classified devices that allow the crew to communicate with the missiles, with them.

Launch codes are part of the component, and the devices were described as large, metal boxes.

Col Ford said they were waiting to get back to base "and they fell asleep".

It is not clear how long the three were asleep.

A fourth crew member was on duty but was not in the room when the trio fell asleep, the Air Force said.

Senator Byron Dorgan called the series of nuclear missteps involving Minot Air Force Base in his state, North Dakota, disappointing and unfortunate.

"This appears to me to be an incident in which codes were not compromised but some rules were broken, and those broken rules were reported," he said.

"This does not appear to me to be equal to flying an airplane loaded with nuclear weapons halfway across the county; that was extraordinarily serious."

He went on: "I don't think this is an issue about the base. I think it's an issue about personnel.

"There have obviously been management and command problems at this base, and the Air Force has made some command changes to respond to it."

General Norton A Schwartz and Michael Donley, who have been nominated to be the next Air Force chief of staff and secretary respectively, vowed to work to restore trust and confidence in the service during their Senate confirmation earlier hearing this week.