Communication With 50 Nuke Missiles Lost by US in ICBM Snafu

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"Oops! Duck and cover!"

The US Air Force swears there was no panic. But for three-quarters of an hour Saturday morning, launch control officers at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming couldn’t reliably communicate or monitor the status of 50 Minuteman III nuclear missiles. Gulp.

Backup security and communications systems, located elsewhere on the base, allowed the intercontinental ballistic missiles to be continually monitored.

But the outage is considered serious enough that the very highest rungs on the chain of command — including the President — are being briefed on the incident today.

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