In just three years, eighty-six cases seems like eighty-six too many when dealing with such large high-risk pieces of equipment. Luckily in this particular report, there were no "Broken Arrow" type incidents. These are defined as a "nuclear detonation or possible detonation other than a risk detonation." This definition also includes, "seizure, theft or loss of a nuclear weapon component".

However these eighty-six cases are what are called "Bent Spear" and "Dull Sword" reports. "Bent Spear" is defined as, "An unexpected event involving war reserve nuclear weapons or nuclear components which does not fall into the category of a nuclear weapon accident..."

A "Dull Sword" bears the definition of, "an unexpected event involving a nuclear weapon/component (including war reserve, test, training weapons or BDUs) or associated test and handling equipment which is not a nuclear significant incident or nuclear accident..."

The mere fact these definitions even exist is scary enough, but to add in the fact that each of them has happened is even scarier. Reports are created when incidents occur, and this newly acquired document by The Black Vault has details on each incident between these three years.

The incidents are put into special categories of the type of problem that occurred. These categories include "Handling," "Flooding," "Storage," and even "Inadvertent Release."

Only one "Inadvertent Release" incident occurred between 1981 and 1983. This happened on 15 August 1983 in which a practice run and delivery of a BDU-36C bomb was, "inadvertently released from an A-7E aircraft." Two runs to try and acquire this weapon proved unsuccessful until finally it turned up on a ranch and turned in seven months later.

Other incidents were truly on a minor scale, but others proved to be quite opposite. Like on 13 February 1981, a BDU-24C was being lowered when the rear hook on the bomb was not released yet. This caused the bomb to have its end slammed against the bomb rack pylon putting a huge dent in the rear of it.

Also on 24 February 1981 which is quoted here verbatim: "While attempting to download a BDU-6/E-1 using an Aero 33 bomb truck, the hydraulics failed on the bomb truck. The weapon dropped approximately six inches. As the weapon dropped, it tilted, allowing the nose to strike the aircraft. The nose section of the weapon received three minor dents."

This newly acquired report details the cause of the incident and what was done to resolve the issue. Different security classifications graced the reports, ranging from Classified to Top Secret. Very little of this entire report was omitted, but strangely enough one thing was removed that stuck out.

Looking at the "distribution list" of what agencies and offices received this report on it's release, thirteen lines were blacked out and omitted for reasons unknown. For some reason, the military decided that offices receiving this report were classified, and it was not to be known on why.

When the 20th Century Fox movie "Broken Arrow" came out, audiences laughed off the concept of a stolen nuclear weapon. The unfortunate truth to the matter is: the government has a definition all worked out for such a scenario, and many times we will never hear about the incident anyway -- it's classified.

For more information, read this newly released report: http://www.bvalphaserver.com/modules.php?name=Sections&sop=viewarticle&artid=428

For over 106,000+ more pages of government material, please visit The Black Vault at: http://www.blackvault.com

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