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Audit: Bases improperly recorded nukes items

Nine Air Force bases improperly cataloged or failed to record nearly 1,000 nuclear-related items, though none of the accounting errors compromised the safety or security of any weapons, according to service officials.

An internal audit, conducted a year ago and released in May, examined 25 bases that take part in the nuclear mission. The Air Force Directory of Logistics requested the survey to validate an inventory of more than 18,000 nuclear weapons-related items — everything from warheads to missile bolts — valued at $1.7 billion.

At the nine bases, auditors found 932 items on site but not listed on “accountable records,” according to the report, obtained by Air Force Times through a Freedom of Information Act request. Almost half of the assets were at two of the installations: Hill Air Force Base, Utah; and Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.

Hill has a history of bookkeeping failures. Airmen mistakenly shipped four nuclear nosecones to Taiwan in 2006; two years later, an investigation found items improperly stored and inventoried. The problems at Hill coupled with a cross-country flight of a B-52 accidentally loaded with six nuclear warheads led Defense Secretary Robert Gates to fire the service’s top civilian and uniformed leaders.

Of the 25 bases, eight did not give auditors full access to the buildings that house nuclear-related items. At Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., for example, airmen brought nuclear assets out of the buildings for counting, which prevented auditors from identifying items on the inventory list inside the building, according to the report.

Air Force leaders know about the audit, have followed up with the commanders in charge and will monitor all the bases, according to an Air Force statement.

“Now that we know what those areas are, we are concentrating on improving them,” the statement read. “Although none of the findings show compromises in safety, security and reliability of nuclear weapons sustainment, we continue to hone our training, processes and procedures to ensure we provide the best possible support.”

After Taiwan notified the Pentagon about the nosecones, Gates ordered the Air Force to develop criteria for nuclear-related items.

Air Force logistics personnel worked with the Navy and Defense Logistics Agency to identify 431 unique nuclear-related items and assigned national stock numbers to each. The Air Force Logistics Management Institute then compiled inventory listings for each item. The service published rules on managing the items in February 2009 but did not issue inventory procedures until July 2009, the same month as the inventory.

In interviews, airmen told auditors that they received “interim” inventory procedures from logistics managers only four days before the inventory and many said they did not even know the requirements for entering secure locations where nuclear-related items are stored.

In response to problems found during the inventory, the Air Force published an Air Force Instruction a month after the audit that outlines the procedures and timing for future inventories.

The Air Force inventoried its nuclear weapons-related materiel in March but has not released the results.

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