WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military mistakenly shipped four fuses for nuclear missiles to Taiwan in 2006 and never caught the error, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, acknowledging an incident likely to rile China.The military was supposed to ship helicopter batteries to Taiwan, but instead sent fuses used as part of the trigger mechanism on Minuteman missiles. Taiwan returned the parts to U.S. custody last week.
I’ve got so many questions on this…
Do you think Taiwan had to call ahead to get a return authorization request for the fuses?
2 years. Do they still get a refund? Did they still have the receipt?
Based on the information now known, the four fuses, which do not resemble helicopter batteries,
Really? They don’t look alike? Who’d a thunk?
How long did they tried to install the the part labeled “battery” before they realized it didn’t look like the one they took out?
I’ve gotten plenty of stuff made in Taiwan that had instructions that, well…. let’s just say I can see how they could have confused a fuse for a battery.
Do you think the US military stores nuclear missile fuses in the same warehouse as helicopter batteries? I suppose it’s that whole hazardous waste thing.
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.
Walmart has figured out how to do their inventory accounting more frequently than once a quarter. Can someone send the area code for Bentonville, Arkansas to the Pentagon?
When Taiwan realized it had received the incorrect shipment, it notified the U.S. military. …But U.S. military officials did not understand the nature of the problem until last week.
What part of “Wrong part” do you think they were having trouble understanding?
Henry said there was no indication Taiwan tampered with the fuses before returning them.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight! Has anyone checked Ebay to see if the schematics are available yet?
