THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603090425
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
The Pentagon is using Navy ships and an Air Force spy plane to monitor the flight path and electronic emissions of surface-to-surface missiles that China has fired toward Taiwan.
Clinton administration officials denounced the missile firings after the initial round in the Taiwan Strait near two of the island's main port cities.
``The action they took with these missile firings was reckless,'' Defense Secretary William Perry said Friday. ``It could only be viewed as an act of coercion.''
What made Thursday's initial missile launches especially dangerous, Perry said, was their flight path so close to Taiwan - about 20 to 30 miles away.
``It had the danger that if the firings had any malfunctions at all, then some parts of the missiles could have landed on populated areas,'' Perry said.
The aircraft carrier Independence was near Taiwan, and the guided-missile cruiser Bunker Hill was close enough to observe the missile flight, Perry said. The Bunker Hill is equipped with the Aegis weapons system, which features special radar banks capable of tracking missile flight paths. Other officials said the Independence was operating about 200 miles northeast of Taiwan, the Bunker Hill just south of the island.
Also in the area was the guided-missile destroyer O'Brien.
U.S. reconnaissance aircraft also were monitoring the missile tests, Perry said.
He gave no other details, but other officials speaking on condition of anonymity said an Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint spy plane was using its advanced electronic eavesdropping gear to monitor the technical data transmissions from the missiles to Chinese ground stations tracking the flight. by CNB