AP
June 6, 2008
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates ousted the Air Force's top military and civilian leaders yesterday, holding them to account in a Pentagon shake-up after nuclear warhead fuses were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan.
Gates said he had accepted the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne.
Gates cited two embarrassing incidents in the past year. In one, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown across the country without anyone realizing nukes were aboard.
In the other, four electrical fuses for ballistic missile warheads were mistakenly sent to Taiwan in the place of helicopter batteries. Gates said an investigation found a theme in the B-52 and Taiwan incidents: "a decline in the Air Force's nuclear mission focus and performance."
