Missile Fuse Shipment a “Mistake,” U.S. Tells China

U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday discussed the 2006 delivery of Air Force nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 26).

“It came up very briefly” during a telephone conversation between the two leaders, U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley told journalists.  “Basically, the president indicated that a mistake had been made.  There was very little discussion about it.”

China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory and objects to U.S. defense cooperation with the island’s government, yesterday called for a full investigation of the incident.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates by that point had already announced such a probe (Terence Hunt, Associated Press/Boston Herald, March 26).

The fuses are part of the trigger for a ballistic missile.  They do not contain nuclear material.

The U.S. Defense Department communicated with Taiwan about the error for several months before Taiwanese officials indicated last week that it involved sensitive nuclear missile components rather than helicopter batteries ordered from the United States, the Washington Post reported.

Taiwanese officials found the fuses inside four crates sometime between August 2006 and last week, said U.S. officials familiar with the dialogue over the error.  It remains uncertain when Taiwan realized it had the electronic ICBM components, but the United States was unaware of their absence during the 18 months they were in Taiwanese custody.

“Last week they said they didn’t think they could destroy these items and said it was warhead-related material,” one U.S. official said.  “That was the first time there was any indication we weren’t dealing with a battery.  All the alarm bells went off at that point” (White/Kessler, Washington Post, March 27).

Taiwan’s defense minister said today he does not believe the fuses were dismantled and examined by a Taiwanese weapons research agency, Reuters reported.

When asked by a Taiwanese lawmaker whether the missile components had been reviewed by the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwanese Defense Minister Tsai Ming-hsien said:  “As far as I know, no” (Reuters/Yahoo!News, March 27).

Pentagon officials said an ongoing probe of the accidental missile fuse shipment could focus on a U.S. contractor responsible for storing and transferring materials at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported today.

The parts arrived at the base in 2005 and were sent out in August of the following year.  According to Pentagon officials, the probe led by Navy Adm. Kirkland Donald would focus on the base’s storage and transfer procedures, which have been managed by the contractor EG&G since 2002 (Matthew LaPlante, Salt Lake Tribune, March 27).

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