Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-03
By: Central News Agency
The anti-ship missile launched by mistake on Friday carried a live warhead, not one used for drills or testing, and could not have been destroyed externally after it was accidentally fired, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND).
In the MND’s detailed question-and-answer statement released Saturday on the missile blunder, it revealed that the Hsiung Feng III was not carrying a dummy warhead used for drills or testing.
While explaining the reason why it was unable to trigger the self-destruct mechanism on the missile by remote control from far away, the MND said there are two kinds of self-destruct mechanisms on a regular missile, one built externally that can be activated manually and another installed inside the warhead.
During military exercises and missile testing drills, most bombs used are implanted with externally-activated self-destruct mechanisms that allow them to be destroyed remotely should anything go wrong, to guarantee safety, the MND said. [FULL STORY]