Missile crew members fell asleep

"Decisive and urgent steps" are needed to restore the US Air Force's respect for nuclear weapons after three ballistic missile crew members fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices, US authorities said.

The incident at a base in North Dakota, just south of the Canadian border, is the latest in a series of nuclear mistakes which have plagued the US Air Force in recent months.

In August last year a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown from Minot Air Force Base, the site of the latest incident, to Barksdale Air Force Base in the southern state of Louisiana.

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