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The unmarked 18-wheelers ply the nation's interstates and two-lane highways, logging 3 million miles a year hauling the most lethal cargo there is: nuclear bombs.
The covert fleet, which shuttles warheads from missile silos, bomber bases and submarine docks to nuclear weapons labs across the country, is operated by the Office of Secure Transportation, a troubled agency within the U.S. Department of Energy so cloaked in secrecy that few people outside the government know it exists.
The $237-million-a-year agency operates a fleet of 42 tractor-trailers, staffed by highly armed couriers, many of them veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, responsible for making sure nuclear weapons and components pass through foggy mountain passes and urban traffic jams without incident.
The transportation office is about to become more crucial than ever as the U.S. embarks on a $1-trillion upgrade of the nuclear arsenal that will require thousands of additional warhead shipments over the next 15 years.
The increased workload will hit an agency already struggling with problems of forced overtime, high driver turnover, old trucks and poor worker morale — raising questions about its ability to keep nuclear shipments safe from attack in an era of more sophisticated terrorism.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 18 2017, @05:46AM (3 children)
The increased workload will hit an agency already struggling with problems of forced overtime, high driver turnover, old trucks and poor worker morale
This is all of the agencies doing their yearly dance of 'we are so important give us more cash'. Especially with the current president making a big splash of 'justify your existence'. 42 trucks and 237 million? Something is not adding up here. That would be somewhere between 42 and 84 drivers. Even if they paid the 80 drivers a princely sum of 200k each that is still a fraction of the budget they have. I also doubt they are switching out every trailer/cab every year. That sounds very high. Someone is padding the budget or I am misunderstanding the whole problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 18 2017, @09:30AM
or I am misunderstanding the whole problem.
Yes
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 18 2017, @07:03PM
Try a truck with 6 guys in it, two SUVs also with 6-8 guys each, plus ammunition, fuel costs for hauling 2-4k extra pounds of armor per SUV, and probably 10k/20k per semi/trailer, not including the actual cargo.
In addition to all this, imagine paying extra for security clearance, hazards pay, and overtime (assuming these aren't salaried positions.)
That stuff all adds up fast.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @11:33AM
You did leave out the escort vehicles these trucks are always accompanied by. If an accident happens, civilian first responders need to be turned away, and someone needs to be there to be an in-the-loop first responder.
Not saying there's no padding; hard to say for sure from the outside. Just saw an unaccounted for expense.