WASHINGTON — After Taiwanese officials reported in early 2007 that four packages they had received from the U.S. military did not contain the helicopter batteries they had expected, U.S. officials suggested that Taiwan simply dispose of the incorrect items — which turned out to be parts for U.S. nuclear missiles.
In e-mail correspondence over several months between Taiwan and U.S. defense officials, U.S. officials assumed that the erroneous shipment simply contained the wrong type of batteries, not that Taiwan had received four classified nuclear-related items that never should have left U.S. soil.
U.S. government officials familiar with the communications said Wednesday that at some point between August 2006 and last week, Taiwan opened the drum-shaped packages and noticed that the items inside were labeled “secret” and that they included Mark 12 nose cones, which are used with U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Since early 2007, Taiwan had been asking U.S. officials to either reimburse them for the missing batteries or replace them, as part of billions of dollars in U.S. military sales to Taiwan over the past decade. But after the situation was resolved and U.S. authorities told the Taiwanese to get rid of the items they had received — missing warning signs of a serious breach — the Taiwanese double-checked the packages, because of worries that discarding them could be dangerous.
Taiwan last week alerted U.S. authorities that they believed the military had shipped them items related to U.S. “warheads,” sparking alarm at the highest levels of the Pentagon. It is unclear when Taiwan opened the packages and how long they knew they had classified U.S. materials in their possession, but the drums were in a Taiwanese warehouse for more than 18 months while the United States did not know the sensitive materials were missing.
“Last week they said they didn’t think they could destroy these items and said it was warhead-related material,” said one U.S. government official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because the incident is under investigation. “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.”
The parts that the United States shipped to Taiwan are Mark 12 nose cone assemblies, which have 1960s technology and are being phased out by the Air Force in favor of nose cones compatible with newer Mark 12A warheads for its Minuteman III missiles.
There are about 700 Mark 12 assemblies in the U.S. inventory. They do not contain nuclear material but help trigger a detonation as a ballistic missile nears its target.
