U.S. Could Cut Arsenal Without New Warhead, General Says

By Jon Fox
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The Reliable Replacement Warhead would help the United States decrease the number of reserve weapons in its nuclear stockpile but is not necessary for a continued reduction, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, the Bush administration’s nominee to be the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday (see GSN, July 25).

Under the terms of the 2002 Moscow Treaty, Russia and the United States agreed to reduce the number of operationally deployed warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 by 2012. 

That treaty, however, sets no limits or goals for a reduction in reserve weapons.  The total number of warheads maintained by the United States remains classified, but according to the most recent estimate from the Natural Resources Defense Council there are slightly more than 5,100 deployed U.S. warheads and nearly 4,800 in reserve.

Gen. James Cartwright, in his testimony during a Senate confirmation hearing, suggested that the new nuclear warhead design proposed by the administration would be the “biggest leverage” toward reducing the stockpile.

The Reliable Replacement Warhead would be easier and safer to produce and maintain as well as less prone to operational failure, administration officials have argued.  Such characteristics would permit the United States to carry fewer reserve warheads as a hedge against unforeseen problems with the deployed arsenal, officials have said.

The program has drawn serious opposition in Congress, and Cartwright noted that even without the new design the U.S. stockpile could be drawn down over the next five years.  He offered no specific numbers.

The Energy Department recently announced that it had increased the pace of weapon dismantlement and that it expected to decommission twice as many weapons this year than it did in 2006 (see GSN, June 7).

Again, the actual number remained veiled behind a curtain of classification, but Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert with the Federation of American Scientists, said the United States dismantled about 100 nuclear weapons last year.

“We need to stay on that path,” Cartwright said.  “I agree that as long as there are other countries in the world that have nuclear weapons, we’re going to have to have a deterrent in the nuclear side of the house.”  That deterrent, however, should be “the smallest number necessary to be consistent with national security needs,” he said.

It is unclear what that number might be.  Portions of a classified Bush administration re-evaluation of nuclear weapons policy were leaked in 2002, but since then a comprehensive assessment of the role of U.S. nuclear weapons has not been undertaken.

As administration officials push for fiscal 2008 funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead, a number of lawmakers have called for another re-evaluation of nuclear policy (see GSN, June 29).

Adm. Michael Mullen, the nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who testified with Cartwright, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Stockpile Stewardship program continues to enable the United States to refrain from explosive nuclear weapon testing.

Under the stewardship program, U.S. warheads are maintained and refurbished with enough confidence that underground nuclear testing is not needed to certify the weapons’ viability and reliability.

Mullen, now the chief of naval operations, said the defense of U.S. interests in the Middle East, and dealing with Iran as a component of that effort, is the primary challenge that would face him should he become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs (see GSN, July 30).

“I’m especially concerned about the increasingly hostile role played by Iran,” he said.  “I support diplomatic efforts to counter Iran’s destabilizing behavior and hope their leaders will choose to act responsibly, but I find their support for terrorism and their nuclear ambitions deeply troubling.”

As the U.S. continues what is likely to be a “longer, larger war on terror,” the U.S. military could be taken to places “we do not now foresee,” Mullen said.  Meanwhile the United States must be able to “deter if possible and defeat if necessary” regional powers that might be armed with nuclear weapons, Mullen said.

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