Nuclear Nose Cones Mistakenly Shipped to Taiwan

Reservoir Hill writes "The Pentagon announced that the United States had mistakenly shipped to Taiwan four electrical fuses designed for use on intercontinental ballistic missiles, but has since recovered them. The mistaken shipment to Taiwan did not include nuclear materials, although the fuses are linked to the triggering mechanism in the nose cone of a Minuteman nuclear missile. Taiwanese authorities notified U.S. officials of the mistake, but it was not clear when the notification was made. An examination of the site in Taiwan where the components had been stored after delivery indicated that they had not been tampered with. The fuses had been in four shipping containers sent in March 2005 from F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., to a Defense Logisitics Agency warehouse at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. It was then in the logistics agency's control and was shipped to Taiwan "on or around" August 2006, according to a memo from Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordering Navy Adm. Kirkland H. Donald to investigate the incident."

Hmm...

[Corpuscavernosa]

What can Brown do for the US Government?

disparity...

[m2bord]

we send them really nifty stuff like nuclear nose cones and they ship us some crappy sneakers...

what gives? this is worse than the xmas gifts i get at work....

Re:Nosecones?

[toleraen]

Welcome to Slashdot

Isn't Taiwan the good China?

[fucket]

Isn't Taiwan the good China? At least that's the impression I've pieced together from the back of sugar packets and Tom Clancy novels.

Re:disparity...

[AioKits]

This is Taiwan, not the PRC. They make the computers around which your nerdly life revolves.

Would it be okay if I sent them a fruit basket as well then? You know, a lil icing on the cake...

Re:Why is this reported?

[someone1234]

Rest assured, they'll send it back in one form or another.

Re:Why is this reported?

[z0idberg]

2) The *next* time we send nuclear weapon components to the wrong address, the recipient might not be nice enough to send them back. And they might wind up somewhere we wouldn't like.

Or even worse, if you sent nuclear weapons components to the wrong address and they put them all together and THEN sent them back.....express.

Re:Nosecones?

[SailorSpork]

China wants Taiwan. We like Taiwan. We could give or take China (love their cheap crap, hate their social structure that allows said cheap crap, afraid of billion-man Armageddon-sized army). How do we prop up Taiwan without pissing off China? "Accidentally" help make them a nuclear power by "oops!" letting them hold on to vital nuke bomb parts to study for a year or two!

Fiendishly clever, I say.

Re:Hmm...

[chriseyre2000]

Probably less than Blair did.

Re:This is terrible

[j00r0m4nc3r]

They're going to be pissed when they realize we sent them a shoddy bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts.

Re:Nosecones?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think anyone would care whether the megaton hydrogen bomb just detonated in their city was based on 1960s designs or 1980s designs :)

And I thought I had bad timing with smileys.

Next on Slashdot....

[jlf278]

Millions in California Die...

Summary: ...ve into the ocean today as ocean currents bring warmer waters to west coast beaches.

Re:Nosecones?

[Amouth]

personaly i bet they where shipped back there for RMA - and they for got to put the number on the outside of the box so it took them awhile to get around to them

Re:Nosecones?

[Talderas]

Far from it, nuclear weapons are a sign of power. If I have a nuke and you don't, and I told you to give me all your porn and if you didn't I would nuke you, would you comply or risk possibly being nuked?

See, I have power.

Nuclear power baby.

Business model

[chord.wav]

1 Ship WMD to foreign country
2 Claim that foreign country has WMDs
3 Invade foreign country
4 PROFIT!

China and Taiwan

[Perf]

For years, Chiang Kai-shek and company insisted that China was a province of Taiwan. ;-)