Computer glitches, hardware failures and unexplained communication outages happen all the time. But when the affected systems control nuclear-armed missiles, it gets a little scary.

That's why Saturday's brief malfunction at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, disconnecting 50 intercontinental ballistic missiles of the 450-ICBM-strong U.S. arsenal from their human controllers, has raised concerns just two years after a Defense Department panel said there had been "an atrophy of the Air Force's nuclear mission."