Ax Falls on Generals in Nuke Screw-Up

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2008— -- ABC News has learned that eight generals will receive administrative punishments for their role in the mistaken shipment of fuses for nuclear warhead components to Taiwan in 2006.

The Air Force will announce Thursday that disciplinary letters have been given to six generals, ranging in rank from one-star to three-star, for their role in the embarrassing incident.

The letters range from letters of counsel to letters of admonishment and letters of reprimand, and the administrative punishments could be career-ending for the six generals.

In addition, nine other Air Force officers of lesser rank will also receive similar letters, but no demotions are expected to result from these letters.

The Army will also announce that "memorandums of concern" have been issued to two one-star generals who worked for the Defense Logistics Agency at the time of the mistaken transfer. A Defense official says these letters have less severe consequences for their careers than those being given to the Air Force generals.

The mistaken transfer of components for nuclear warheads first became public in March and compounded the Air Force's inadvertent flight of nuclear-armed cruise missiles aboard B-52 bombers the previous year.

Both incidents revealed security flaws in the Air Force's nuclear mission that, this June, led Defense Secretary Robert Gates to fire the Air Force's top leadership.

In announcing the resignations of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, Gates called the Taiwan incident, " a significant failure to ensure the security of sensitive military components. ... More troubling, it depicts a pattern of poor performance."

In the incident involving the transfer of nuclear fuse components to Taiwan, the Pentagon did not learn that the items were missing until 18 months after the fact.

Four nose-cone fuse assemblies were mistakenly sent to Taiwan in August 2006, instead of the four replacement battery packs for helicopters that had been requested by Taiwan's military.