A Minot Air Force Base machine gun has gone missing just days after a 42-pound box of explosive grenade rounds went missing at the base while being transported on a gravel road.
The machine gun was discovered missing in a routine weapons inventory at the North Dakota facility.
“The 5th Bomb Wing and 91st Missile Wing immediately began a search of their weapons invinetories and opened an investigation with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations,” a statement from the base said Thursday, The Washington Post reported.
The missing weapon is an M240, a common machine gun used by all U.S. armed forces that can shoot up to 950 rounds per minute at up to two miles, Military.com reported.
The Air Force base said it would share new information about the investigation as it becomes available. Spokesman Lt. Col. Jamie Humphries didn’t speculate on whether the incidents were due to theft or were accidents, the Post reported.
KFYR reported Humphries said all ammunition was present and accounted for.
The Minot Air Force base houses the B-52 Stratofortress, which can drop nuclear weapons on targets at high subsonic speeds, according to The Post. It also operates intercontinental ballistic missile silos.
While the missing grenades also are being investigated, it is believed they fell off a truck and went missing near Parshall on May 1, the Air Force Times reported. A search for the grenades, which are used in a grenade launcher, ended last week after personnel exhausted efforts to find them.
A $5,000 reward has been offered by the military for information that leads to the grenades’ recovery.
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