Senate Panel Eliminates Trident Conversion Funding

The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee cut all funding for converting Trident nuclear-armed missiles to carry conventional warheads from the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, Inside the Pentagon reported yesterday (see GSN, March 9).

The panel instead shifted the $175 million Defense Department request into a single account with other money for the “prompt global strike.”

“The committee recommends that the funds identified … be transferred to technical studies, support and analysis, to be used to establish an integrated PGS research program,” lawmakers said in a report released last week.  “Requirements for the program should be provided by the U.S. Strategic Command as informed by the ongoing analysis of alternatives for PGS and the PGS technology roadmap.”

The U.S. military has been trying to develop a conventional capability to quickly eliminate threats such as a weapon of mass destruction carried on a missile or being delivered by other means.

Observers have worried that using a Trident for this purpose might lead another nuclear-powered nation, such as China or Russia, to believe that a nuclear strike was under way.  If the Pentagon pursued its plan, all 12 U.S. Navy Trident submarines would carry two Trident D-5 missiles with conventional warheads, but the remaining missiles would still be armed with nuclear weapons.

The type of weapon fired would become apparent only when it exploded, Inside the Pentagon reported.

“It is essential to maintain a bright light between legacy nuclear capabilities and any future PGS capability,” according to Senate defense authorizers.  The committee “therefore recommends no funds for the [conventional Trident modification] or other similar capability that could raise any nuclear ambiguity issues.  The committee believes that PGS should be clearly and unambiguously non-nuclear.”

The Senate panel added $208.2 million for the prompt global strike program into the budget line item for defense-wide research and development.  That is in addition to the Pentagon’s request for $31.3 million (Elaine Grossman, Inside the Pentagon, June 21).

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