The Pentagon has been unable to locate hundreds of sensitive nuclear missile components in the United States inventory, according to top officials familiar with a highly confidential report by the American defence department.
The finding comes after the air force last year found that a bomber mistakenly flew across the US with six nuclear warheads onboard.
Washington recently dismissed its top air force officials, including the Chief of Staff and Service, after a probe raised concerns about American nuclear safeguards in the light of the inadvertent shipment of nuclear missile nose cones to Taiwan.
The Financial Times reported that according to previously undisclosed details, the probe also concluded that the air force could not account for many sensitive components previously included in its nuclear inventory.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said that the Pentagon was evaluating the results of a 'comprehensive inventory of all nuclear and nuclear-related materials [conducted] to re-establish positive control of these sensitive, classified components'.
The British daily quoted one official as saying that the number of missing components was more than a thousand.
Admiral Kirkland Donald, the US naval officer who led the probe in the two incidents, had concluded that 'the gradual erosion of nuclear standards and a lack of effective oversight by air force leadership' was the common origin in both the cases.
As the US pushes for global security measures to check nuclear proliferation, these incidents have raised concerns about the safeguard of weapons of mass destruction.
Gates has asked James Schlesinger, a former defence secretary, to make recommendations for improving nuclear safeguards.
The London-based daily quoted a senior US defence official as saying that the probe report had 'identified issues about record keeping for sensitive nuclear missile components'. But he stressed that there was no suggestion that components had ended up in the hands of countries that should not have received them.
However, Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, said the revelation was "extremely troubling because it raised vital issues linked to proliferation of nuclear weapons.
"It raises a serious question about where else these unaccounted for warhead related parts may have gone," Kimball was quoted as saying by the daily. "I would be surprised if the recent Taiwan incident is not the only one," he stressed.
© 2025