Excellent points...
ABCNEWS.com 4/7/00 "…..The State Department is accusing Lockheed Martin Corp. with illegally exporting technology to a Chinese company that could help China improve its missile technology. Lockheed, the largest U.S. defense contractor, conducted 30 violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the department said in a letter to the company dated Tuesday. The Bethesda, Maryland-based company could be fined up to $15 million and barred from export licenses for three years. A company spokesman told reporters that Lockheed had done nothing wrong and would appeal the State Department decision…………The letter, a copy of which was obtained today by ABCNEWS, says that Lockheed had specialists assess Chinese manufactured satellite kick motors for use in Chinese government Long March 2E launch vehicles, or missiles. A kick motor fires after launch to send a satellite into its final orbit………… In addition, Lockheed had in 1994 sent the company, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited, or Asiasat, a 50-page technical letter that the Pentagon had ordered reduced to about five pages, according to the State Department…….."Lockheed Martin Corporation did not at any time inform the U.S. government of these exports prior to the recent disclosure of these facts through an investigation conducted by the U.S. Customs Service," the letter says……….In performing and sharing the study, Lockheed also violated U.S. rules by identifying flaws in Chinese testing procedures, confirming the results of Chinese tests pinpointing faulty insulation, and identifying problems with U.S. solid rocket motor technologies, according to the State Department letter……."