House Panel Chops Funding for Conventional Trident

By Elaine M. Grossman
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Appropriations Committee last week cut funding for developing a conventional version of the Navy’s nuclear-armed Trident D-5 missile and shifted the remaining dollars into a separate account (see GSN, June 22).

In its July 25 markup of the fiscal 2008 defense appropriations bill, the panel nixed the entire $49 million the Defense Department requested to begin purchasing material in the so-called Conventional Trident Modification effort.  The program would arm 24 D-5 missiles with non-nuclear warheads and deploy them throughout the Navy’s Trident submarine fleet.

The lawmakers also clipped the $126.4 million request for conventional Trident research and development, shifting $100 million into a new account the Pentagon could spend on any of several “prompt global strike” initiatives.

Defense officials since 2005 have looked to build a stable of weapons that could hit targets anywhere around the globe within 60 minutes of a strike order.  The Pentagon wants the conventional Trident to become the first such system deployed.

The House move echoes a similar provision passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in its version of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, which remains pending on the Senate floor.  The panel in June wrote that no funds in the new account should be used for the Conventional Trident Modification “or other similar capability that could raise any nuclear ambiguity issues.”

Lawmakers in both chambers have raised concerns that Russia or other nations might mistake the launch of a conventional Trident for a nuclear-tipped missile, potentially triggering a nuclear retaliation against the United States (see GSN, May 16).

The House appropriators’ report cautions against adopting a single solution such as the Trident, but does not sharply restrict how the joint funds could be spent.  Rather, the panel says the joint account is aimed at “not limiting the nation to a single option at this early stage in the concept, but still allowing for the CTM option or other such options like Advanced Hypersonic Weapon in the near future.”

Critics of the use of a single joint account for prompt global strike weapons allege the accounting device is directed at winning a greater funding share for the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, a technology left unfunded by the Army, its official service sponsor.  Congressional interest has kept the nascent hypersonic technology research program alive.

Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is envisioned as an unmanned boost-glide vehicle capable of striking targets up to 6,000 miles away in less than 35 minutes.  Skeptics say the proposed system faces immense technological hurdles that could take many years and dollars to surmount.

There was no mention of the weapon in galley proofs of the House appropriators’ language on the conventional Trident, drafted by the panel’s staff and obtained by Global Security Newswire.  Committee members added reference to the Army technology during their markup of the bill.

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