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An even bigger question, is how did it take almost two years to discover the mistake? There's a huge management problem here, make no mistake about it.

What was supposed to be sent were four batteries for helicopters.

The fuses were made for use on a Minuteman strategic nuclear missile, and are connected to the triggering mechanism placed in the nose cone. The system it was developed for was made in the 1960s. No nuclear materials exchanged hands in the error.

Tracking the error

It all began with the fuses, which were sent in four large containers; being sent for F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming to Hill Air Force Base in Utah where they was supposed to be placed in a Defense Logistics Agency warehouse.

When they arrived, they were supposed to be put in a classified area, but were instead placed in an unclassified place in the warehouse.

Somehow they were sent from there to Taiwan, where they have been in storage since about August 2006.

When it was discovered

At an unknown time in 2007, the Taiwanese contacted the U.S. about not receiving the helicopter batteries they ordered. After months of talks with them, U.S. officials thought the problem was the two sides were talking about different batteries.

It wasn't until a few days ago that military officials in the U.S. finally figured out what had happened, and what they had mistakenly shipped to Taiwan. They have since been recovered.

The Managment Problem

First, the obvious problem was evidently no one knew what was in the containers in the first place ... at least in Utah. That's why they had been put in the wrong unclassified place.

Second, the inventory in these places are required to be checked on a quarterly basis. Even with those measures in place, about six quarters went by without the error being discovered. If Taiwan hadn't needed the batteries, we still wouldn't have known there was a problem.

That seems to say the inventory isn't truly being checked, and everyone up and down the line is simply signing off on it without verifying whether inventory is really there or not.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates' Response
 
Through his No. 2 policy official Ryan Henry, Defense Secretary Gates said that while there will be mistakes, those connected to strategic systems "cannot be tolerated."
 
Gates has ordered a completed investigation, assigning Admiral Kirkland H. Donald to head it up. He wants Donald to have his initial assessment reported back to him by April 15.

Potential Consequences

When considering the consequences of these fuses ending up in the wrong hands (which in reality they did), and if they had been used, this is the type of mistake that really can't and shouldn't happen.

The world is simply too dangerous to allow a relaxation of duty and checks and balances with this type of material.

This is more serious than it looks because of the discovery that the inventory isn't being checked. The next obvious question is what else isn't being checked?

However many things need to be put in place to ensure these types of mistakes don't happen, need to be implemented. The stakes are too high to do anything differently. This is a real and serious breach. I'm looking forward to seeing what really happened, and how quarterly inventory checks missed identifying the problem over and over again.