Russia, U.S. Discuss Missile Conversion

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov met last month to discuss Washington’s plan to place conventional warheads on submarine-launched missiles that now carry nuclear warheads (see GSN, Aug. 9).

The United States plans to convert a number of long-range Trident missiles for potential rapid use against terrorists or weapons of mass destruction.  Rumsfeld said Russia should also consider converting its missiles, according to a State Department release.

“If either of our countries or our friends and allies were threatened at some number of years into the future with a weapon of mass destruction or a capability that was lethal, I think any president, whether Russia or the United States, would like to have available a conventional weapon that could attack that party quickly and accurately and precisely and not feel that the only thing they had might be a nuclear weapon which they would not want to use,” Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld noted concerns that the flight of a converted Trident could be mistaken for a nuclear launch and lead to an atomic response.  Ivanov said that danger is of particular concern to his nation, the release states.  Additional talks are necessary on the matter, he said.

“These are preliminary plans,” Ivanov said.  “I cannot announce right now that Russia will join such (an) initiative.”

Rumsfeld argued that countries with nuclear weapons possess the technology to detect and track a missile launch, and to determine what sort of payload the weapon carries before it lands.

Ivanov countered that consideration should be given to cruise missiles or new types of intermediate-range missiles.

The two defense chiefs urged openness in dialogue on the issue during their Aug. 27 meeting in Alaska.  Washington backs development of “appropriate communications links and confidence-building measures” in any missile conversion plan, Rumsfeld said (David McKeeby, U.S. State Department Washington File, Aug. 30).

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