attack. as pentagon correspondent barbara starr tells us, it didn t go well. reporter: john, christine, it was last summer at an air force nuclear base in montana when a security group, a small team of air force security experts failed an inspection. it was an exercise, training about what to do if terrorists took over a nuclear missile silo and tried to get to a nuclear weapon on the base. they failed that exercise. now a report has emerged about exactly what happened. i want to read you a couple of examples of what they are talking about. the report says that the personnel failed to take all lawful actions necessary to immediately regain control of nuclear weapons. and as a result of that, the test found that the air force team may not have been able to prevent theft, damage, sabotage, destruction or even detonation of a nuclear weapon.
at a nuclear missile sight terrorists infiltrate, security forces struggle to respond and fail. it was all a it test last summer here at malmstrom air force base in montana. they failed a crucial exercise in keeping control of their silo and the simulated capture of a nuclear weapon. the cover of this 17-page report doesn t even begin to tell of what s inside. it sounds like a shocking failure in military security. two, one, turn. reporter: the finding? security personnel failed to take all lawful actions necessary to immediately regain control of nuclear weapons. the results, the air force team may not have been able to prevent theft, damage, sabotage, destruction, or detonation of a nuclear weapon. former air force missileer says
exercise in keeping control of their silo and a nuclear weapon. the cover of this 17 page report doesn t even begin to tell of what s inside. it sounds like a shocking failure in military security. 2, 1, turn. reporter: the finding, security personnel failed to take all lawful actions necessary to immediately regain control of nuclear weapons. the result, the air force team may not have been able to prevent theft, damage, sabotage, destruction or detonation of a nuclear weapon. former air force missiler didn t follow protocol. the report only came to light because the associated press
they failed that exercise. now a report has emerged about exactly what happened. i want to read you a couple of examples of what they are talking about. the report says that the personnel failed to take all lawful actions necessary to immediately regain control of nuclear weapons. and as a result of that, the test found that the air force team may not have been able to prevent theft, damage, sabotage, destruction or even detonation of a nuclear weapon. now, the team went through retraining, and they did pass, but this comes at a time when the nuclear force has been plagued by some disciplinary problems, morale problems. look, the majority of the personnel do perform their jobs very well, but they do have these problems. this is a very high-pressure environment. the nuclear force has to be
capture of a nuclear weapon. the cover of this 17-page report doesn t even begin to tell of what s inside. it sounds like a shocking failure in military security. two, one, turn. reporter: the finding, security personnel failed to take all lawful actions necessary to immediately regain control of nuclear weapons. the result, the air force team may not have been able to prevent theft, damage, sabotage, destruction, or detonation of a nuclear weapon. former air force missileer jeffrey green says it s likely someone didn t follow procedure. what it doesn t mean is there was any physical loss of control or threat of physical loss of control of the nuclear weapon. reporter: officially the air force will say nothing. the report only came to light because the associated press obtained it through a freedom of information act request. the air force security group commander was replaced.