US Mistakenly ships ICBM parts to Taiwan

I have a feeling that heads will roll for this...




U.S. mistakenly ships missile parts to Taiwan

Officials say the shipment of non-nuclear electrical fuses was a Department of Defense process error and that the components have since been returned.
By Ben DuBose, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:03 AM PDT, March 25, 2008

WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials said today that non-nuclear parts for an intercontinental ballistic missile were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan in 2006 and that an investigation had been started.

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said at a Pentagon news conference that the items sent to Taiwan were four electrical fuses for nose cone assemblies for ICBMs. Wynne said the fuses have been returned and are at a U.S. base.

"It could not be construed as being nuclear material," Wynne said. "It is a component for the fuse in the nose cone for a nuclear system. We are all taking this very seriously."

The government of China views Taiwan as a part of China and strongly opposes U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, making the matter particularly sensitive.

According to Wynne, the fuses were shipped between Air Force bases in 2005 before they were mistakenly sent to Taiwan the following year.

Officials in Taiwan notified the U.S. government of the error.

"Preliminary information indicates that a shipment took place in response to a Foreign Military Sales Order from Taiwan for helicopter batteries," Wynne said. "The Defense Logistics Agency mistakenly shipped these items instead of the requested batteries."

Ryan Henry, the second-ranking policy official in the office of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, said both Gates and President Bush were told about the incident on Friday.

At the news conference, Wynne reiterated that the incident was merely a process error and was not indicative of a shift in policy.

"In an organization as large as the DOD, the largest and most complex in the world, there will be mistakes," he said. "But they cannot be tolerated in the arena of strategic systems, whether they are nuclear or only associated equipment. Our policy on Taiwan arms sales has not changed."

U.S. "accidentally" sent 4 nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan

Here's the link to the very interesting news just came out several minutes ago:


Apparently nuclear warhead fuses and helicopter batteries look the "same" I guess

I wonder why Taiwan decided to wait 2 years before notifying U.S. that they got some highly classified materials. Could they have reverse engineered those warhead fuses?

opps.....

Heh our bad.....

Even though personally I believe it was a simple mistake, I'm going to love reading all the conspiracy theories coming out of this one. Just like the Chinese embassy bombing in Yugoslavia... again I believed it was a simple error but surprisingly, not from the Chinese side, all the theories that it was intentional because China had that hulk of that F-117 shot down in its embassy or the Chinese were transmitting military intelligence to the Serbs was the real reason it was bombed. Making it look intentional is better than looking like you can make a mistake.

In this case, I find all the dates and times being a point of scrutiny. And does the Tibet situation play a role on why this information was release at this time in order to minimize the criticism from all circles? And it was the Taiwanese that had to inform the Pentagon that they had nuclear fuses missing from their inventory. Look at the long chain of mistakes they're definitely going to find out of this. Meaning the grander the conspiracies.

Man, this is terrible. Imagine Taiwan ordering further weapons. They might give Taiwan all the wrong ones.

Re: U.S. "accidentally" sent 4 nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan

They (US officials) examined it. It didn't seem that they had been tampered with. But hopefully Taiwan officials have taken a look at what the damn thing is and reverse engineered it. This with the rumored nuclear weapons of Taiwan will give Taiwan an edge, and will kill lots of commies if they ever invade Taiwan.

kliu0 said:

Man, this is terrible. Imagine Taiwan ordering further weapons. They might give Taiwan all the wrong ones.

Click to expand...

Ha ha yeah I can imagine. Taiwan drives up to the international US weapons drive thru window, but the guy got Taiwan's order all wrong. Next time they'll go to Dassault-Burger, if you know what I mean.

Well as Assasin's Mace said, this will undoubtedly cause some conspiracies; I can imagine Iran accusing the US of transfering nuclear materials.

Re: U.S. "accidentally" sent 4 nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan

kw64 said:

.....Could they have reverse engineered those warhead fuses?

Click to expand...

The Taiwanese are likely more than capable to technically. It's no secret they had nuclear weapons programs few decades ago but is said to have been shutdown long ago.

Re: U.S. "accidentally" sent 4 nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan

kliu0 said:

They (US officials) examined it. It didn't seem that they had been tampered with. But hopefully Taiwan officials have taken a look at what the damn thing is and reverse engineered it. This with the rumored nuclear weapons of Taiwan will give Taiwan an edge, and will kill lots of commies if they ever invade Taiwan.

Click to expand...

Personally, taiwan needs a more creditable defence than a rumored weapons program with a out-dated fuse.

Wow I wonder how Beijing is going to react. This cannot be acceptable action.