Premium

That time the French secretly built a beacon on New Zealand soil which could be used to target nuclear weapons

David Fisher
By
Senior writer·NZ Herald·
10 mins to read
That time the French secretly built a beacon on New Zealand soil which could be used to target nuclear weapons
A mushroom cloud after the explosion of a French atomic bomb above the atoll of Mururoa. Photo / Getty Images

A radio satellite station capable of being used for ballistic nuclear missile targeting was secretly built by the French on the Chatham Islands, newly-discovered and declassified documents reveal.

When defence officials discovered the existence of the newly-built antenna in 1989, it caused alarm and saw the issue rapidly escalated to

Save