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Time trial: should Trident add short-notice capability to the US global-strike mission?
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20 March 2006
Time trial: should Trident add short-notice capability to the US global-strike mission?
By Amy F Woolf
George W Bush's administration has requested USD125 million in Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) to convert nuclear-armed Trident ballistic missiles into vehicles carrying conventional warheads. It is estimated that the programme could cost up to USD500 million over six years.
According to the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), the US Department of Defense (DoD) will change a small number of these missiles for the conventional 'prompt global-strike' (PGS) mission under which the US is seeking a capability to strike high-payoff targets anywhere in the world at very short notice.
Numbers game
Under the new plans, the US Navy is reportedly looking to equip 24 Trident missiles with up to 96 conventional warheads. With two submarines in overhaul and 12 deployed at any one time, this could mean two conventional missiles per submarine, with four warheads on each missile. The remainder of the missiles would carry nuclear warheads, and the submarines would, presumably, continue to stand alert and patrol in the areas consistent with their nuclear mission.
This prompts several questions about Trident deployments and operations. For example, the conventional warheads on these submarines would count under the limits in START and the Moscow Treaty. Losing 96 warheads to the conventional mission probably would not pose a problem under the START limit of 4,900 ballistic missile warheads, but as the US reduces to the Moscow Treaty limit of 2,200 warheads, this could begin to impinge on US nuclear-targeting capabilities.
The US could try to exclude the conventional warheads from counting under the Moscow Treaty's limits, but Russia may be unwilling to accept this position when the warheads are deployed on the same missiles and submarines as nuclear warheads.
Amy F Woolf is a specialist in National Defense at the Congressional Research Service. The views expressed here are her own and do not reflect the views of CRS or the Library of Congress.
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