The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

The US Air Force's new chiefs vowed Tuesday to restore "perfection" as the standard for the control of US nuclear forces, in the wake of a series of embarassing blunders that cost their predecessors their jobs.

"It is a mission where anything less than perfection is not acceptable. And that is the standard," said General Norton Schwartz, the air force chief of staff. "That certainly is the standard of the folks that brought that to us through the years, and we will return to that standard," he said at a news conference with Mike Donley, the new air force secretary.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates sacked their predecessors in June after an investigation into the nuclear mishaps found an erosion in standards and a loss of focus in the air force's handling of nuclear weapons.