Chuck Hagel comforts the nation: America’s ability to respond to attack no longer partly hinges on speed of FedEx

Via Jonathan

I did a double-take today when I heard SecDef Chuck Hagel say this today because it sounds sort of like a Dr. Strangelove outtake:

One telling example of the decay in the nation’s nuclear arsenal emerged from reviews released by the Pentagon Friday. Maintenance crews at the nation’s nuclear bases had access to only one wrench required to tighten bolts on the warhead end of the Minuteman 3 missile, and this same wrench was being used by crews at all three ICBM bases in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, according to reviews by the Pentagon and by outside experts.

Asked about the wrench by CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that crews at the three bases exchanged the tool by “federal expressing” it to each other. “They were creative and innovative,” he said, but he acknowledged that’s not how the system is supposed to work.

Crisis corrected:

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