The United States could employ bar codes or Global Positioning System trackers to help improve management of its nuclear warheads and related components, the U.S. Air Force's top officer told the Los Angeles Times yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 27).
"It seems to me there is a more modern way to maintain inventories of weapons and nuclear materials," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said in an interview after visiting Barksdale Air Force Base, La., where a B-52 bomber mistakenly delivered six nuclear-armed cruise missiles last year.
Despite concerns among Energy and Defense Department officials that such tracking systems could undermine security, "it is worth our while to explore other opportunities," he said.
Schwartz commended personnel at the air base for passing several recent surprise checks, but he expressed disappointment that the Air Force still relied on paper records to track its nuclear materials (see GSN, Nov. 19).
While speaking to Air Force officers and service members, Schwartz stressed the nuclear arsenal's importance in protecting U.S. interests.
"We don't beat our chests and we don't talk about it openly, but the truth is it has an effect," he told high-level officials.
Schwartz later told the Times that the U.S. nuclear arsenal remains necessary to back U.S. military power and discourage nuclear proliferation abroad.
"We have not yet arrived at the moment where going to zero will make sense," he said. "It underwrites a lot of what we do" (Julian Barnes, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 26).