Power Failure Shuts Down Squadron of Nuclear Missiles ("lost complete control of 50 ICBMs")

[Hissyspit]

Source: The Atlantic

Power Failure Shuts Down Squadron of Nuclear Missiles
OCT 26 2010, 4:36 PM ET15

President Obama was briefed this morning on a power failure at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming that took 50 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), one-ninth of the U.S. missile stockpile, temporarily offline on Saturday.

The base is a main locus of the United States' strategic nuclear forces. The 90th Missile Wing, headquartered there, controls 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles. They're on full-time alert and are housed in a variety of bunkers across the base.

On Saturday morning, according to people briefed on what happened, a squadron of ICBMs suddenly dropped down into what's known as "LF Down" status, meaning that the missileers in their bunkers could no longer communicate with the missiles themselves. LF Down status also means that various security protocols built into the missile delivery system, like intrusion alarms and warhead separation alarms, were offline.

- snip -

"We've never had something as big as this happen," a military officer who was briefed on the incident said. Occasionally, one or two might blink out, the officer said, and several warheads are routinely out of service for maintenance. At an extreme, "(w)e can deal with maybe 5, 6, or 7 at a time, but we've never lost complete command and control and functionality of 50 ICBMs."

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/power-failure-shuts-down-squadron-of-nuclear-missiles/65207/

[cliffordu]

1. Bummer.

That means we could only kill everything on the planet 20 or thirty times over....

[Ter]

33. Pretty sure the roaches would somehow survive

:)

[petronius]

2. It's vaguely creepy to me that nuclear warheads are referred to as "in service"

I know it just means sitting there able to function. but it's too active of a phrase...

[valerief]

3. Something's gonna get bombed. Just wait. I wonder who they'll blame this time. nt

[defendandprotect]

27. Iran .... isn't Iran next up on the list of "evil" nations to be attacked ...???

[formercia]

4. Perhaps the Chinese were trying to send us a message.

It wouldn't be the first time.

[Pavulon]

12. Yes that we know, they know, that even with all these weapons offline

the 18 ohio class subs operating under a different command structure could erase all life there.

Its a power outage.

[NutmegYankee]

15. 14 Now. The first four were converted into the SSGN Class. nt

[The abyss]

21. The world has moved beyond the “MAD” scenarios.

True, there appear to be a butt load of end-timer, apocalyptic nut cases wishing for it.

However, the world's allied nations aren’t going to start it.

And the corporate/bank/fraud/politicos running the US ain't going to allow some boat commander to launch before they finish raping the US treasury.

[Pavulon]

46. Everyone puts on a good front, but when it comes to the permenant orange afro

no one is volunteering. China has no interest in a war of any type with the US, nor does Iran.

[MikeMc]

5. Mae Brussell said that

Matthew Root, who flew a small airplane thru Soviet airspace, into a Red Square landing, signalled that Gorbachev was taking the USSR over, (from Andropov maybe?)

Personally, I liked Gorby, before he did the Pizza Hut commercials.. I liked him more than Poppy bush, as did most Americans. I would never eat a pizza that any bush recommended. Those WASPs have no taste regarding Eye Tie food.

[awoke_in_2003]

7. You consider Pizza Hut pizza pizza?...

yeah, I know it fits the loose definition of pizza, but I know damn well you have real pizza in Pittsburgh (unlike we here in Texas) :)

[MikeMc]

13. No; Little Ceaser is 'Pizza Pizza'

We had real pizza around here since '52 (DiCarlo's on Rt 51), unlike the rest of whitey America. We blazed the pizza trail, helping the anglos (who have a strange attraction to Olive Garden 'Italian food') to see the light. Must admit that I do like wood fire and brick oven pizzas, currently available in Pgh, though not a tradition.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. "Little Ceaser is 'Pizza Pizza'"

I knew someone was going to catch that :) I like Bato's in Mt Lebanon. I have an uncle who lives in Green Tree and that is his place. They only cook the dough and sauce, and put the cheese on when it comes out. Doesn't sound right, I know- but by time you get it home it is perfect.

on edit: I moved here from Cleveland 18 years ago. I miss that place. Can't swing a cat without hitting some mom and pop Italian restaurant.

[MikeMc]

36. Yes, I've been going to Beto's (Banksville Rd.), since I was a kid.

~40 years. They are about 6 minutes from my home in Mt. Washington (Duq. Heights). Good Sicilian style pizza, good crust, with interesting fresh-tomato and olive oil sauce, and a heaping mountain of cheese. They recently renovated and expanded, so customers who dine in can get the completely cooked pizza at tables in the restaurant. My favorite Sicilian square cut was DiSalla's in the Allentown/Knoxville neighborhood, but that was before the cousin took over the business.

For a while, Beto's was posting a sign that told newbies to quit coming back to yell about the un-melted cheese. It said something like "We've been doing it this way for decades". The idea that Beto and DiSalla shared was that if you order take-out, you turn your oven on at home. Then you get the pizza, and take it home. Throw it in the oven, and it's piping hot in 5 minutes. It melts the cheese & completes the cooking process without drying the pizza out. This elegantly compensates for the cooling off that occurs in the car ride back from the store.

You can tell who the new customers are at Beto's, when they order 'extra cheese'. The kitchen staff is laughing their lungs out when that occurs.


Sorry you can't get good Italian food there. Hopefully, you have access to some good Mexican food places. I lived in San Diego for a while, and the Alberto's chain of taco stands made a carne asada burrito that I still dream about 25 years later. Pittsburgh is getting some Hispanic population influx, but not enough for a good authentic inexpensive taco stand. A good cheap taco stand is the wave of the future, like pizza was in the '50s. In my humble sociological and gastronomical opinion, I mean.

Hey, by the way, I was just canvassing Green Tree for the Labor Dems, two weeks ago. It went swimmingly.

[awoke_in_2003]

45. I had forgotten about putting it...

in the oven when you got home. The last time I had it was when I was 13 (28 years ago). I know what you mean about the cheese- they definitely weren't scimpy with it. I still think it is the best pizza I ever had, but it could be old-timers syndrome kicking in.

My uncle still lives in Green Tree, so you might have talked to him. Of course, the thought of him ever voting republican is beyond the pale.

[MikeMc]

47. By your age, you are right on the cusp

of having received curb-side service from 'Eat N Park' on Banksville, '50's drive-in style. Do you remember getting a tray with 'Big Boy' burgers placed on your family's car window, or are you too young? Those were the days. Big Boys were better than the Big Mac.

I know you're related to Beto's, but DiSalla's was heavenly. Still, there are no bad pizzas. Some pizzas are just better than others.

I met no republicans on my Greentree canvas, but we did not hit every house, just AFL and Working America members.

Go, Dems!

[awoke_in_2003]

48. Yes, I remember Big Boy's...

like you say, Big macs do not compare.

On edit- how about Arthur Treacher's fish and chips? Makes Long John Silvers look pathetic.

[MikeMc]

49. There hasn't been an A. T. around here for a long time

Was there one down by Beto's and E&P in the old days?

I guess if the chain is smaller, the food quality is better.

[awoke_in_2003]

50. Not sure about there being one...

in Pittsburgh- my uncle lived there, and we only visited a couple times a year. I know Steubenville and Cleveland had them, though.

[MikeMc]

41. A savvy moderator would tell us to move the discussion over

to the "Loose Nukes & Pizza" forum.

But everyone knows that you can't nuke a pizza and preserve its taste.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Doesn't Darth Cheney live in Wyoming? n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

8. Only when running as a VP...

(since the Pres and VP candidates cannot be from the same state).

[Thor_MN]

9. They can be from the same state, but then they can't get the electoral votes from that state

Chenney's "anchor dwelling" was just for the purpose of getting the TX votes.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Ah, yes...

forgot that little nugget.

[MikeMc]

16. You're right, 12 th Amendment.

The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. -- source citation is Mark C. Miller's book 'Cruel and Unusual', p. 205.

I forget, did l'il bush or dickhead Cheney lose any electoral votes from TX or WY in 2000?

So much for scholarly Constitutional quibbling.

[Ter]

34. What a dumb Amendment

Was it really necessary to pass? Were same state politicians taking over the presidency?

[MikeMc]

39. 12th Amendment passed in 1804,

according to my wife's 'American Constitutional Law' text, by Ralph Rossum and G. Alan Tarr.(St. Martins Press, NY, 1987.)

Jefferson was re-elected 3rd President that year, and his Vice Prez, Burr, shot and killed Hamilton in a duel in Jersey.

What happened in 1800, was that Burr and Jefferson got tied in electoral votes, and the election was decided by the House of Reps in Jefferson's favor. The deal Burr made was that he would accept the Vice Presidency in the term starting 1801, and in return he would be the Pres. candidate in '04. Which didn't happen. (But Gore Vidal said that Martin van Buren (Old Kinderhook) was Burr's illegitimate son, so the family eventually got into the presidency. 'Old Kinderhook' is where we got the expression 'O.K.')

The children's book series titled 'The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans' (Dell, NY, 1967) says that the 12th Amendment provided for separate voting for President and Vice Prez, and 'precluded a repetition of the Jefferson-Burr tie of 1800'. (p. 131, Volume 2). But really, it seems like an effort to prevent all those well-connected, Royal Family - related white guys from shooting each other. Which seemed to work, until Cheney went hunting with his lawyer.

[MikeMc]

38. Cheney -- TX or WY?

Most people think 'Cheney-Wyoming', but after we threw out the trash in '92, Cheney moved to --- Dallas. The place where nazi oil creeps who are fake Christians and real mutants love to congregate. It is their mecca. I guess he moved there to be closer to business, but Wyoming's big business is also oil (a-la Teapot Dome Scandal). Cheney, who's net worth is conservatively valued at $94,000,000 not including his pig wife's money, benefitted from Texas law that allows no taxes to be paid on the 'tax payer's' primary residence. So Cheney lived there for the entire Clinton administration. He saved $347,000 this way. (This was important to him, because he would only have had $93,653,000 dollars if he had done things differently. And though he spends all his life on the government dole -- and all his 'private sector' financial dealings involve sweet-heart deals where the federal government subsidizes his businesses -- he hates the government and wants to cause it to starve to death for lack of funds.
Anyway, he ran up to Wyoming on 7/21/2000 to register to vote, 3 days before he joined the ticket, because (even though he voted in Dallas, registered his cars in Texas, had a Texas Driver's license, and 'paid his taxes' in Texas for 8 years) he had a mountain cabin in Wyoming. The Reagan appointee Circuit Court judge Sid Fitzwater found that Cheney did live in Wyoming, based on the grounds that Cheney said he did, so that allowed Cheney to be on the ticket with bush. The results of this decision are that Cheney committed felony fraud by accepting residential homestead exemptions on his 1.6 million dollar house in Dallas, because as he, bush, and the Reagan judge said, he didn't really live there. The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on this case, (surprisingly).

[MikeMc]

42. Dum Dum Dum Dah DAH Dum Dum De Dum

[Ghost Dog]

11. So main power, backup generators and backup batteries all went dead?

Um. Was any not easily explainable aerial activity observed in the area at the time?

Edit: Note: The Atlantic article now (visibly) redacted. First line now reads: President Obama was briefed this morning on an engineering power failure at F.E. Warren Air Force Base...

... and the word 'power' removed from headline.

[MilesColtrane]

14. Another initial probe before the full invasion force arrives

Aliens Have Deactivated British and U.S. Nuclear Missiles Say U.S. Military Pilots

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8026971/Aliens-have-deactivated-British-and-US-nuclear-missiles-say-US-military-pilots.html

[MikeMc]

17. Will Smith will mobilize, and kick their sorry heinies.

[bushmeister0]

44. Very suspicious.

. . . "Capt Salas continued: 'I was on duty when an object came over and hovered directly over the site. The missiles shut down - 10 Minuteman missiles. And the same thing happened at another site a week later. There's a strong interest in our missiles by these objects, wherever they come from. I personally think they're not from planet Earth.'"

[pasto76]

18. you all need to read about "Perimeter". Scary, scary shit.

something like this may have initiated a response from Perimeter.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-10/mf_deadhand?currentPage=all

[defendandprotect]

26. As we say...."Americans are really smart about really stupid things" .... !!!

Presumably "Nuke 'em" Le Lay ....

and efforts by Nixon to be thought "crazy" in order to worry Russians!

In fact, Nixon was paranoid and insane!!




The new administration began expanding the US nuclear arsenal and priming the silos. And it backed up the bombs with bluster. In his 1981 Senate confirmation hearings, Eugene Rostow, incoming head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, signaled that the US just might be crazy enough to use its weapons, declaring that Japan "not only survived but flourished after the nuclear attack" of 1945. Speaking of a possible US-Soviet exchange, he said, "Some estimates predict that there would be 10 million casualties on one side and 100 million on another. But that is not the whole of the population."



Read More http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-10/mf_deadhand?currentPage=all#ixzz13WvValso

[ManiacJoe]

19. Not a power outage. Manually taken off line.

The link in the OP now refers to an updated article.

[Hissyspit]

23. Thanks. nt

[guruoo]

22. Why worry?

At the rate we're going, we Americans are going
to end up destroying each other long before we'll ever need them.



Valery Yarynich glances nervously over his shoulder. Clad in a brown leather jacket, the 72-year-old former Soviet colonel is hunkered in the back of the dimly lit Iron Gate restaurant in Washington, DC. It's March 2009—the Berlin Wall came down two decades ago—but the lean and fit Yarynich is as jumpy as an informant dodging the KGB. He begins to whisper, quietly but firmly.

"The Perimeter system is very, very nice," he says. "We remove unique responsibility from high politicians and the military." He looks around again.

More...
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-10/mf_deadhand?currentPage=all

[defendandprotect]

24. Recently they lost the CODES that are supposed to be immediately available to President....

only a year or so ago we had missiles being shipped out on a plane --

evidently simply for the ride! We still haven't had a full story on that one!!

THIS is exactly why all the missiles should be shut down -- who's the enemy anyway?

The Russians aren't coming --

neither are the Chinese -- don't care what Newt says!!

And, I don't think NORAD will go AWOL a second time -- the first time was too hard to believe!!

[Purveyor]

25. Stuxnet perhaps? Just wondering... eom

[defendandprotect]

28. More human error -- or UFO's .... ???

[defendandprotect]

29. Btw, some great anti-war/MIC movies made in 60's... "7 Days in May" on AMC right now ...!!

Kirk Douglas

and Burt Landcaster --

[The abyss]

30. 7 days in May

I always liked the closing shot from that film.

An image of the preamble to the constitution.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

[Hissyspit]

35. I noticed that. I'm too busy to watch it now, though.

Have it in my Netflix queue. I have seen it before.

[Hardrada]

31. We have it here right now on TCM.

I also have my own DVD of this. Timely flick then and now.

[MikeMc]

43. Strangelove

with Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, Keenan Wynn, George C. Scott, and Peter Sellers.

I heard that Angle is herself a fan of 'OPE'. Bircher wacko.

[Joe Bacon]

32. Just wait for the Republicans to shut down the government!

This is just a taste of what will come if the Republicans get their way on Election Day!

[Blue_Tires]

37. The W.O.P.R. could use an upgrade or two...

[bobthedrummer]

40. Then there was an "announcement" about an alleged 4.6 earthquake in Wyoming-information warfare is

the only reality today. Anyone still believe in "coincidence"???

on edit: k&r