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Nuclear Earth Penetrator Test Could Occur Through U.S. Air Force By David Ruppe WASHINGTON — A major U.S. defense bill could allow resumed study of a controversial nuclear earth penetrating weapon capability next year, despite Democratic claims last week that the bill’s language is intended to keep the program frozen (see GSN, May 19). Congress last year provided no money for the program. The administration requested $4 million for the program this year. However, consensus language contained in the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, which the committee passed last Thursday, again provided no money for the Energy Department effort. The committee “took the ‘N’ out of ‘RNEP,’” Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) said in a statement following the vote. The Republican chairman of the committee, however, offered a different take on the legislation, stating in a press release that the feasibility of testing a nuclear penetrator could continue — using the Air Force funding. “The committee authorized $4 million funds within DOD for a study that would evaluate the feasibility of various options, to include conventional as well as nuclear penetrator options” for defeating hard and deeply buried targets, said Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). The bill also contains $4.5 million to study how to deploy a nuclear earth penetrator on a B-2 bomber. A key test of the nuclear penetrator’s shell is planned as part of that study, a committee report says. At the heart of the dispute is a planned “sled track test” of a mock penetrator, which involves slamming a metal shell into a large concrete block at high speed to see how it would survive impact with hard earth to allow a warhead inside to discharge meters underground. A sled test had been planned for this fiscal year of a mock Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator until Congress eliminated funding for the program in 2004. The results of the test would have helped determine whether to pursue congressional funding for full development and production of the system. Bush administration officials have argued that a nuclear weapon is needed to more deeply penetrate solid earth, thereby enabling the warhead to project greater force deep into the earth against a growing number of buried facilities. Critics say pursuing a new nuclear penetrator undermines international nonproliferation diplomacy and that the likelihood that such a weapon would cause massive destruction aboveground makes it of little use. An Armed Services Committee report accompanying the defense authorization bill said the sled test that would have been conducted by the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator program would be conducted using the Air Force money because it could inform consideration of various types of earth penetrators. “The committee understands that the commander, United States Strategic Command has stated that the results from the sled test conducted under this program have applicability to various types of penetrators that may be options for use against hard and deeply buried targets,” it says. “Based on the applicability of the sled test results to various options for HDBT defeat, the committee believes that this study is more appropriately conducted under a program element within the Department of Defense,” it says. Democrats assert that because the test would be funded by the Air Force, which is not responsible for developing nuclear weapons, the test should be tailored to evaluate conventional earth penetration capabilities. In other words, the tested shell should contain a mock conventional warhead rather than a mock nuclear weapon, and should not support evaluation of a nuclear penetrator. “This $4 million will be used for preliminary sled tests to combat hard and deeply buried targets within the purview of the DOD where all our work on conventional bunkers busters has been carried out,” Tauscher said in a statement provided on Friday to Global Security Newswire. ‘Vague’ Language a ConcernTauscher and 22 other Democrats in a statement attached to the bill’s report expressed concern that the report’s language was “written vaguely enough” to allow for a nuclear penetrator test to occur. The committee’s report language “could be construed to allow the sled test to inform whether a nuclear payload could be used in high-speed penetration of hard geologies,” they wrote. The Democrats said they would seek to amend the bill at a conference to reconcile it with a Senate version, by requiring that the test not support a nuclear earth penetrator evaluation. “This sled test should be conducted in a manner that only informs conventional payloads, and if this is not technically feasible, there should be no further work in designing modified or new nuclear weapons designs based on the sled test data,” they wrote. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the $4 million requested for the Energy Department Study of a nuclear penetrator. Tauscher in her statement to GSN noted that even if the administration used the sled test data to help make a decision on a nuclear penetrator, it would still face an obstacle to developing that weapon. “While the majority would argue that conducting this study moves them a step toward an RNEP, I’d remind them that in order to use sled test information to develop a nuclear ‘bunker buster,’ they’ll have to come back through Congress and obtain that funding in the DOE budget,” she said. The Democrats said they also would also seek to eliminate the B-2 adaptation money in the conference committee. “We believe it is premature to begin integration engineering efforts for a weapon that should never be designed and, at a minimum, is years away from being designed,” they wrote.
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