DOD panel: Silly rules are causing airmen to handle nuclear bombs with forklifts
This is interesting. An April 2013 report by the Defense Science Board says that arcane safety procedures are actually making some aspects of the way the Air Force handles its nuclear weapons more dangerous.
Perhaps the best example is that nuclear weapons maintainers aren't allowed to use the hoists designed to lift B-61 nuclear bombs onto Weapons Maintenance Trucks because "the end of the bolt [securing the hoist to the truck] is flush with the outer surface of the nut while technical data require that two threads show beyond the surface of the nut," reads the report. While this condition has existed since the trucks were introduced 22-years ago and has resulted in no problems, the Air Force recently barred units from using the hoists due to their failure to meet technical safety specifications. The result?
"An awkward process entailing the use of a forkliftt to move the weapon into the truck and the manhandling of the 200-pound tail section," states the report. The document goes on to describe the workaround as a procedure "that by any informed judgment, impose[s] far greater safety risk than that presented by the deficiency in the bolt length."
Apparently, new bolts are supposed to be on their way and a whole new truck is expected to enter service around 2015.
more
http://killerapps.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/22/dod_panel_silly_rules_are_causing_airmen_to_handle_nuclear_bombs_with_forklifts
