Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
Chinese Had Details Of U.S. Nuclear Missiles
Spying: CIA obtained Beijing file describing warheads. But officials say
information is not enough to build one.
Los Angeles Times May 11, 1999 Pg. 1
By Bob Drogin, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON--A 1988 Chinese military document obtained by the CIA in 1995
describes the weight, dimensions, explosive yield and other significant
details of six U.S. nuclear warheads and the ballistic missiles
that carry them, as well as hand-drawn sketches of the reentry vehicles that
house the warheads, U.S. officials said Monday.
The material has been key to the current FBI investigation into possible
espionage at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as investigations by
congressional committees and the U.S. intelligence community.
But officials who have seen the classified material said it doesn't contain
sufficient information for Beijing to copy or construct American-style
nuclear weapons. "Knowing the dimensions and the size doesn't tell you how
to build a nuclear weapon," one said.
A chart in the Chinese-language document provides accurate data on America's
W-56, W-67, W-72, W-78, W-87 and W-88 nuclear warheads, according to U.S
intelligence officials who have reviewed it.
The first three warheads date back to the 1960s or 1970s, and are no longer
deployed by U.S. forces. But the W-87, which sits atop the MX "Peacekeeper"
missile, and the Trident submarines' W-88, are America's most
sophisticated nuclear weapons. The W-78 is on Minuteman III missiles and is
also considered highly accurate.
The W-87 carries 10 independently targeted warheads inside its reentry
vehicle, or nose cone. The W-88 has up to eight, and the W-78 has three.
Together, the weapons are considered the backbone of America's nuclear
arsenal.
Among the specific details Beijing obtained for America's ballistic missiles
is what scientists call the "circular error probability," or CEP. It
describes, in yards, how accurate each missile is likely to be.
The accompanying drawings of America's reentry vehicles are done freehand,
and are not blueprints or engineering documents. The dimensions of the nose
cones are written along with the diagrams, the officials said. Some of the
classified details or pictures of the weapons have been published in U.S.
books and magazines, and several U.S. nose cones, such as the Mark 21 that
houses the W-87, have been displayed at military trade shows, according to
Robert S. Norris, a weapons expert at the Natural Resources Defense
Council, a Washington research group.
But the material also contained top-secret details on how U.S. scientists
have used an egg-shaped, or "aspheric," design, rather than a sphere, to
help shrink the space needed for the primary explosive stage of the
W-88.
One official said that the information on the W-88, while top-secret, also
is printed in a classified booklet that is kept on U.S. Navy ships, at Air
Force bases, and elsewhere.
"The information about the W-88 in the 1988 document could have come from
thousands of places in the U.S. government," the official said.
A Chinese official unexpectedly handed the chart and drawings to U.S.
diplomats, apparently in Taiwan, in 1995. The so-called "walk-in" offered to
spy for the United States, but the CIA determined in 1996 he was
acting as a double agent for China's chief spy agency, MSS.
It is still unclear if the secret details on the U.S. nuclear weapons, and
the accompanying drawings, were delivered as a mistake or if they were
intended to signal Washington that Beijing, in theory, could build more
powerful and more accurate nuclear weapons than the relatively dated models
that it has deployed. The material was contained in a much larger stack of
documents that had no intelligence value.
Since nearly all the nuclear weapons on the chart were developed and built
at Los Alamos, an FBI investigation soon focused on a Taiwanese-born
computer scientist there, Wen Ho Lee, for possible espionage during his
visits to China in 1986 and 1988. Lee has denied any wrongdoing, and a
three-year FBI investigation has yet to produce criminal charges.
Officials said Lee's improper transfer of classified computer files into an
insecure computer system at Los Alamos is far more worrying than the
original Chinese document. The files contain a top-secret record of
America's nuclear weapon programs and design data.
So far, the FBI has found no evidence that he provided the material to China
or anyone else.
But FBI investigators who have examined Lee's computer files have recovered
drafts of letters he wrote seeking employment in the private sector from
1993 to 1995, when the bulk of the secret files were transferred.
One theory now under consideration is that Lee was considering taking the
files to impress prospective employers.
"The speculation is if he was leaving, he might want to take some goodies
with him," said an official who has been briefed on the investigation.
Lee apparently was able to transfer the files electronically before 1995. At
that point, a new computer system installed at Los Alamos separated the
classified and unclassified systems with an "air wall," making movement
of the files much more difficult.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson will unveil new security measures at the
department today, including a reorganization of security operations at the
nation's nuclear facilities.
The data and schematic drawings in the 1988 Chinese document were crucial to
an assessment last month by the U.S. intelligence community, which publicly
confirmed that China had acquired U.S. nuclear warhead and nose cone
designs, but offered few details.
A key finding of the assessment was that the information China obtained
through espionage "probably accelerated its program to develop future
nuclear weapons. This . . . allowed China to focus successfully down
critical paths and avoid less promising approaches to nuclear weapons design."
The Chinese-language material also is heavily cited in a House investigative
committee's still-classified report that concludes that China has stolen
secrets for virtually every U.S. nuclear weapon as well as other sensitive
military technology.
The report by a committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach)
has been undergoing a declassification review since January. Release of an
unclassified version was expected this week, but officials said Monday that
the release may be delayed into next week or later.
U.S. officials also have concluded that China obtained information in 1994
or 1995 that has allowed it to copy a U.S. prototype of a high-tech weapon
called the "rail gun," which uses high-intensity electromagnetic pulses to
propel artillery shells or other solid objects. The technology was developed
in the 1980s under the "Star Wars" defense program.
"We don't know how they got [the information], or where it came from," one
official said. "But it's good information, and we believe it."
John Pike, a defense analyst with the American Federation of Scientists,
said the loss of "rail gun" technology was not significant because it has
not proved useful for weapons development.
"It's extremely easy to build, but it's extremely difficult to turn into a
usable weapon," Pike said. "We were never able to make it usable."
In an earlier transfer of sensitive technology, officials said China
obtained an "accelerometer" in 1980, a gyroscope-like device used to help
guide the speed and course of ballistic missiles. U.S. officials have
determined that China reverse-engineered the device and have deployed it on
their own missiles.
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