The Air Force missile wing that failed an inspection last year flunked because its security team was unable to quickly recapture a "stolen" nuclear arm.

When it was first reported last August that the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana had failed its safety and security review, the Air Force's Global Strike Command said that "tactical level errors" unrelated to the command and control of nuclear arms resulted in an "unsatisfactory" rating. On Thursday, the Associated Press revealed it was the inability of security personnel to retrieve within a certain timeframe a captured nuclear weapon during the simulation of a belligerent seizure of a launch facility that caused the entire missile wing to fail the review.

Using open-record laws, the AP gained access to an internal Air Force assessment, which said the wing's security team displayed an "inability to effectively respond to a recapture scenario," something that constituted a "critical deficiency." The review said the team failed to pursue "all lawful actions necessary to immediately regain control of nuclear weapons." The assessment did not say which permitted steps officials failed to take, but that inadequate training, particularly related to "complex scenario" drills, was responsible for the exercise failure.

The 341st Missile Wing oversees one-third of the U.S. arsenal of 450 Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles as part of the Air Force's Global Strike Command. The Montana wing has been in the news several times in the last year for security and ethics-related code violations. Some of the reported infractions include officers napping while on missile-launch duty with the blast doors to their underground silo left ajar, cheating on routine certification tests and alleged drug possession.

Global Strike Command spokesman Lt. Col. John Sheets on Wednesday said he could not discuss the details of the failed August 2013 security inspection.

"We cannot divulge additional details of the scenario or the response tactics due to it being sensitive information that could compromise security," the spokesman said.

The missile wing was retested two months after the failed inspection, and passed.