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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

US forgets how to manufacture Trident missile warhead component

Trident II (D5)-UGM-133Joint American-British plans to upgrade the Trident nuclear weapons had to be temporarily stalled as the US scientific establishment either forgot how to manufacture, or mislaid blue prints of a critical component, an investigation by a US Congressional watchdog body has revealed.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said that the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) "lost knowledge" of how to make a little known, but very hazardous material, codenamed Fogbank.

This oversight resulted in the warhead upgrade programme being put back by at least a year, and cost the taxpayer an extra $69 million.

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1 comment:

  1. Pete10/3/09 13:01

    Well the US is just going to have to ask China, Russia, France or Israel to return the Fogbank plans or do a little (slightly noisy) experimenting ;)

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