The article is saying the US supplied Harpoon cruise missiles to Israel, not nuclear warheads - which they already have and may have installed on the missiles.
This can be confirmed by reading other stories on the subject - for example:
U.S. and Israeli officials have declined directly to address an October news report that Israel was arming U.S.-supplied cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. ..... The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 12 that two senior Bush administration officials said Israel has modified U.S. Harpoon cruise missiles, which can be launched from submarines, to deliver nuclear warheads. The paper added that an Israeli official confirmed the American statements. All three spoke on the condition of anonymity. ..... The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which oversees U.S. military sales abroad, told Arms Control Today Oct. 23 that Israel’s contract for Harpoon missiles does not explicitly prohibit Israel from modifying them to carry nuclear warheads but added that “we have had no reason to believe that the government of Israel had any intention to modify or substitute the warheads of these missiles.”
More than 100 Harpoon missiles have been exported to Israel. The United States, according to DSCA, has also sold Harpoons to 25 other countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. ..... ..a former top U.S. nuclear-weapon scientist and a leading U.S. missile expert interviewed each said the Harpoon could carry a nuclear warhead. They said the issue was whether Israel could build a warhead small enough for the missile, which has a relatively light payload capability of 220 kg and a short range of roughly 100 kilometers. www.armscontrol.org/act/2003_11/Israel.asp
I'm very confidant we've never supplied nuclear warheads to any other country. Though we have stationed nuclear weapons in various countries under control of our own forces - like Europe.
I think I am correct to stand by my previous opinion:
<Seriously, I think nuclear weapons are not something that get loaned to anybody.> Message 19730520 |