The Pentagon is investigating how a B52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads last week and allowed to fly 1,500 miles across America before anyone noticed the weapons were missing.

A squadron commander in charge of the warheads, each of which has up to ten times the destructive power of the Hiroshima atom bomb, has been relieved of his duties while crews responsible for the error have been banned from handling munitions.

Although officials insisted yesterday that there was never any danger of the warheads detonating, the disclosure will shake confidence in the security of America’s vast nuclear arsenal. [...]