The fuses trigger nuclear warheads on Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles. The government has yet to figure out how the two very different items were mixed up in August 2006 and then got out of the country.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a probe, the second such probe in a year to examine serious lapses in the care of nuclear weapons. (The Air Force lost track of six nuclear warheads for a day and a half when they were aboard a bomber flying between North Dakota and Louisiana. Has anybody heard from North Dakota recently?)

UPDATE: President Bush told Chinese President Hu Jintao today that the shipment of nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan was a mistake.

Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, who presumably can tell the difference between a 5-inch battery and a yard-long nose-cone fuse, says:

In an organization as large as DOD, the largest and most complex in the world, there will be mistakes. But they cannot be tolerated in the arena of strategic systems...