Thread: Missile Parts Sent to Taiwan in Error

March 26, 2008
Missile Parts Sent to Taiwan in Error
By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON — Instead of sending helicopter batteries, the United States shipped four electrical fuses for Minuteman nuclear missile warheads to Taiwan, a mistake that was discovered only last week — a year and a half after the erroneous shipment, Pentagon officials disclosed on Tuesday.

Officials said the nose-cone fuses contained no nuclear material, and were similar in function to the ones used for conventional munitions, although these were designed specifically to send an electrical signal to the trigger of the MK-12 nuclear warhead as it was approaching the ground.

Even so, the incident is another embarrassment for America’s nuclear weapons establishment, in particular the Air Force, which previously disclosed that a B-52 bomber mistakenly carried six nuclear cruise missiles on a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana last year.

The United States government is one of the most relentless advocates of halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, their components and the ballistic missiles to carry them, and has made public cases against potential adversaries like North Korea and Iran. It has even criticized partners like Russia for not sufficiently safeguarding its stockpile of weapons.

By losing control of the four missile nose-cone fuses that fit atop a nuclear warhead, the United States risks significant diplomatic criticism from China, which has complained about American weapons sales to Taiwan, an island that Beijing considers a renegade province.

“Though this will likely be chalked up to a bureaucratic snafu, the Chinese will view this through the prism of their own suspicions about U.S. intentions,â€

Officials could not explain how the absence of the fuses was not discovered during the standard inventory reviews carried out four times a year.

Do the inspectors read and speak ENGLISH?

Quite an 'error' involving national security.........

Governments will always misuse the machinery of the law as far as the state of public opinion permits.
- Emile Capouya

I don't have a problem with this, I would much rather see Taiwan with nukes than North Korea, you know in Taiwan they have more freedom than we do and they intend to keep it, check out how well prepared they are to keep out Communist China: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CEyeitVXM2Y

This is why we don't have a big trade deficit with Taiwan, most of these weapons are made in the USA!

Originally Posted by Bowman

I don't have a problem with this, I would much rather see Taiwan with nukes than North Korea, you know in Taiwan they have more freedom than we do and they intend to keep it, check out how well prepared they are to keep out Communist China: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CEyeitVXM2Y

This is why we don't have a big trade deficit with Taiwan, most of these weapons are made in the USA!

Well give Taiwan points for Buying American

Seriously though, oops, the US Accidentally sent it to them.....

Originally Posted by jp_48504

Well give Taiwan points for Buying American

Seriously though, oops, the US Accidentally sent it to them.....

I really wonder if it was an accident? Maybe somebody at the DOD is sending China and North Korea a message? Maybe next we will "accidentally" send Taiwan some enriched uranium that they can make nukes with.