It is scary to think that this type weapon could fall into the hands of Islamic terrorists and be easily smuggled into the US through our porous borders. Presumably the Russian back pack nukes have all been accounted for, but the plans for such weapons could have been put into the hands of those capable producing them like the Iranians.
Lets hope so. NNSA/DOE sent alot of OST types to Russia from 92-2005-ish. IIRC, the backpack nukes were the least of their concern, and even the Russians said they were unreliable because of fusing and the constant tritium?? refueling. They said their backpack nukes had a 30% chance of going off at the desired yield past 1985 or so, and even less reliable in the mid-90s. Russian maintanence of their nukes were sub-standard up to the mid-1990s. They had LOTS of space, lots of bunkers, and lots of conscripts to guard them....and they could always make more new ones.
Anyways, it took ten years of US taxpayer money, in the BILLIONS to secure most of the Russian nuclear material, warheads, and delivery system.
They are up to date now with a pretty good storage and maintenance program, mainly due to the muzzy threat and unpaid science and engineer types in Russia.....and yes, your taxpayer dollars paid for back salaries + bonus' for Russian nuclear program personnel.
Some of our JSOC personnel got the Strategic Rocket Forces (or whatever they are called now) up to speed on physical security measures and QRF tactics that we use. Up until then, they would typically fly an officer in a helicoptor to the facility to see what was up before activating a full QRF/counter action team. Maybe Travis knows some OSINT on this?
DOE had a few missions with Mexican military to see if they could sneak in a large box into the US with a simulated tacnuc...they succeeded a half dozen times and reported it to Congress, who ignored it.
Same type of operation when TSA FAMs smuggle drugs and guns through airports to see if security catches it.