Posted on 03/27/2008 4:41:41 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Taiwan says did not dismantle U.S. missile parts
2 hours, 44 minutes ago
Taiwan's defense minister on Thursday said the island did not dismantle and examine nuclear missile parts mistakenly shipped by the United States, in an incident which has angered China and embarrassed Washington.
The U.S. military was supposed to ship helicopter batteries to Taiwan, but instead sent fuses used as part of the trigger mechanism on Minuteman missiles, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. Taiwan returned the parts to the U.S. last week.
No nuclear material was shipped to Taiwan, Pentagon officials said.
Taiwan's Defence Minister Tsai Ming-hsien was asked in parliament by Nationalist Party legislator Lin Yu-fang whether the parts had been inspected by the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, a weapon's development body in Taiwan.
"As far as I know, no," Tsai said.
Lin wondered if that was not a little like looking a gift horse in the mouth. Taiwan has developed a range of weapons on its own, often with U.S. help, because many countries will not sell the island weapons due to Chinese pressure.
"Sometimes you can't have gifts from heaven," the minister replied.
A Taiwan defense official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters had alerted the United States to the fact they had shipped the wrong equipment over a year ago, but only this month received a reply asking for the parts back.
"It said on the side of the box it was batteries. Upon opening it was not what we had ordered. We didn't know what it was as we don't have that equipment, so we told the United States they'd sent over the wrong stuff," the official said.
The incident has angered China, which views self-ruled Taiwan as its own, and Beijing has called for a thorough investigation, as well as an end to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
The U.S. has not had diplomatic relations with Taipei since 1979 but is bound by law to help Taiwan defend itself.
The erroneous fuse shipment was the Pentagon's second embarrassing misplacement of nuclear or nuclear-related equipment announced in recent months. An Air Force bomber mistakenly carried nuclear warheads over the United States in August 2007.
It was unclear what led to the fuse shipment, and the Pentagon said it does not yet know who was responsible.
The fuses, which send an electronic signal to the device that starts the nuclear weapon's trigger process, are among a class of sensitive equipment that must be accounted for on a quarterly basis.
Based on the information now known, the four fuses, which do not resemble helicopter batteries, were wrongly placed in an unclassified storage area. They were then shipped in late 2006 to Taiwan, which placed them in storage.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ken Wills)
(2) How much those in Taiwan learned from misdelivered packages?
(3) Would somebody inside Taiwan share with China what they found out from the packages?
Three things Chinese intel must be doing their best to find out.
China knows how much damages U.S. military can do by making "a mistake"(ref: U.S. bombing of Chinese embassy in Belgrade.):-)
Ping!
They must look really similar, or have part numbers very close together ...
.......They must look really similar, or have part numbers very close together ... .....
Or, very likely stored in the wrong bin. The inventory control specified a pick location containing the wrong part.
Part numbers always follow a small description of item. I still believe this was intentional and not a mistake. A physical manifestation of a subliminal message.
:^)
I aint buying the mistake bull ship. Somebody is selling secrets IMO.
I have some ocean front property for sale in Arizona.
This is hilarious. I’m willing to bet that after having them for more than a year, if they didn’t know how to make these parts before they got them, they sure do now.
One has to wonder if accidentally shipping these parts to Taiwan was like accidentally bombing an embassy in Yugoslavia.
Not much, and it wouldn't matter. Taiwan is what is called a "30-day" country. That means that Taiwan could develop and construct a small nuclear device inside 30-days.
(2) How much those in Taiwan learned from misdelivered packages?
Again, there is probably not very much to learn that they don't already know.
(3) Would somebody inside Taiwan share with China what they found out from the packages?
Possibly, just to let them know they have either upgraded their technology or found they are further advanced than the shipment components.
This is all cookbook stuff. No real technological breakthroughs need to be made, that was done in the '40's and later in the late 50's/early 60's. There is speculation the South African weapons and the 'probable' Israeli weapons were developed by Taiwan/Israel/South Africa.
Hmmm.
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