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Republicans Push for New Nuke Requirement By David Ruppe WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers this week pressed U.S. defense officials to explain why the military would need a new earth-penetrating nuclear weapon, which has been under evaluation in a program favored by the Bush administration (see GSN, Feb. 4). The administration has requested $8.5 million in fiscal 2006 funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator program to continue a study of whether an upgraded, existing nuclear weapon might be capable of plowing more deeply through rock prior to a nuclear explosion. The money would enable a first drop test by the Air Force next year of the hardened weapon, without a nuclear explosion. Bipartisan opposition to the program was sufficient to eliminate funding for the program for the current fiscal year. A key Republican lawmaker questioned whether the senior military leadership believes there is a military need — reflected in a formally stated military requirement — for whatever new capability the weapon might offer. No one at the Defense or Energy departments has “ever articulated to me a specific military requirement for a nuclear earth penetrator,” Representative Dave Hobson (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, said in a speech this month. No Formal Requirement So far, military leaders have not publicly indicated a formal military requirement for a modified weapon. “A formal military requirement for the nuclear bunker buster would give the program additional forward momentum. It brings the bomb closer to reality,” said Council for a Livable World President John Isaacs. A Republican legislator yesterday asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to detail such a requirement. “Could you please tell me directly if there’s a military need for this robust nuclear earth penetrator?” asked Representative Terry Everett (R-Ala.) at a Defense Department budget hearing before the House Armed Services Committee. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers responded that the combatant commander responsible for worrying about deeply buried targets “certainly thinks there’s a need for this study,” and also endorsed that view. “It’s not a commitment to go forward with a system, it’s just to see if it’s feasible,” he said. Rumsfeld said “there is a need for the study — which is what we’re talking about here, and not a weapon.” He offered, though, the administration’s rationale for pursuing such a capability, though, saying new commercial technology has enabled other countries to bury facilities by “digging underground, in rock, twice the height of a basketball net and the full length of a basketball court every day in rock.” Countries “all across the globe are putting things underground, and we have no capability, conventional or nuclear, to deal with the issue of deep penetrat[ion],” Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld in January reportedly sent a letter to then Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham urging funding for continuing the earth-penetrator study (see GSN, Feb. 1). Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) at a hearing on Tuesday asked Abraham’s replacement, Samuel Bodman, to provide the committee the administration’s justification for the program (see GSN, Feb. 16). Administration Seeks Weapon The administration first signaled an interest in a new earth-penetrating capability in its 2002 Nuclear Posture Review. A deeper digging nuclear weapon, Pentagon officials have argued, could provide the United States a better capability to strike deeply buried, hardened underground bunkers and potentially create less surface destruction by using a small nuclear yield. Congressional opponents and independent critics of the effort have argued that no weapon is likely to plow deep enough to significantly contain a blast; that such a weapon would be unlikely to be used because it would create massive surface destruction and fallout on populated areas; and that the program undermines efforts to strengthen international nonproliferation cooperation. The administration last year projected a five-year, $485 million budget for the earth-penetrator program if Congress authorizes moving past the study phase into full research and development. U.S. Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) suggested that North Korean officials during his recent visit to Pyongyang expressed concern about the United States obtaining a more capable nuclear earth penetrator. “The North Koreans were very intrigued by the notion that we were looking to pursue a deep-earth penetrator to get at their underground complexes,” he said during yesterday’s briefing.
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