Nuclear Nexus

House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) didn't mince words during his opening statement at today's hearing on the failure of the nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, TN, to prevent an 82-year-old nun and two other antiwar activists from infiltrating the facility:

Let me be clear: I rank this failure alongside the Air Force's unauthorized shipments of nuclear weapons to Barksdale Air Force Base in 2007 and nuclear weapons components to Taiwan, which was reported in 2008.

From our oversight of those incidents, this subcommittee is intimately familiar with how systemic failures -- coupled with a lack of leadership attention -- can lead to massive failures in a business with room for none.

The 2007 Air Force incident revealed deep and systemic flaws throughout the Air Force enterprise that allowed that incident to occur. It also revealed that both on-the-ground personnel and senior leaders in the Air Force had taken their eyes off the ball when it came to nuclear weapons. Tellingly, we saw Secretary of Defense Gates take strong action to hold these people accountable and fix the system.