Pentagon to continue development of conventional weapons after ratification of START

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 17, 2010; 8:04 AM

Senior Pentagon officials said Wednesday that the recently signed U.S.-Russian arms treaty will not impede their plans for new intercontinental missiles with conventional warheads that could hit targets anywhere in the world within an hour.

U.S. officials have hailed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, as a milestone in attempts to draw down on the number of nuclear weapons in the world. But Russia has criticized the U.S. development of a non-nuclear weapons system, the Prompt Global Strike program, saying its missiles could be as destabilizing as nuclear warheads.

Although final decisions on the Prompt Global Strike program have not been made, James N. Miller, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that officials expected it to only require, at most, 28 ground- or sub-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles. That number could easily be handled within the 700 strategic delivery systems allowed by the treaty, he said.

Miller said the Pentagon is also considering development of a "boost-glide vehicle," a conventionally armed shuttle-like device that would be launched on a missile but be capable of steering in various directions -- unlike intercontinental ballistic missiles -- before striking a target. He said the Pentagon believes such a system would not be counted under the treaty as a new kind of strategic offensive vehicle.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), the ranking Republican on the panel, raised the modernization of the U.S. nuclear stockpile and delivery systems as well as missile defenses as issues of concern. Since Lugar's support would be needed to get enough Republican votes for the 67 required to ratify the U.S.-Russian treaty, the Pentagon officials focused on the issues he raised.

Miller said the Defense Department will transfer $4.6 billion over the next five years to assist the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration reach its 10-year goal of spending $80 billion on the nation's nuclear weapons complex. Some $100 billion is to be spent over the decade on modernization of strategic delivery systems, including new bombers to replace the B-52s, submarines to replace the Tridents and land-based ICBMs to replace the Minuteman III.

The only hint of controversy at the hearing came in exchanges generated by Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who argued that there were "deep differences with the Russians on what this treaty actually means when it comes to defending ourselves." Risch was referring to a Russian unilateral statement, which is not part of the treaty, in which Moscow reserved the right to withdrawal from the treaty if there were a quantitative and qualitative buildup of U.S. missile defenses.

While agreeing that Moscow officials have wanted to use the treaty to constrain U.S. missile defenses, the Pentagon officials insisted nothing in the treaty prevents any missile defense approach that Washington plans to pursue. When Risch noted the treaty prohibits putting missile defense interceptors in silos that currently hold land- or sub-based ICBMs, Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O'Reilly, head of the Missile Defense Agency, said he would never recommend such steps, adding he did not believe them "prudent or operationally effective."