WASHINGTON (KRT) ­ Thousands of U.S. nuclear warheads that President Bush plans to take out of operation in a disarmament agreement with Russia may be put into storage for possible later use rather than destroyed, according to a classified Pentagon nuclear weapons plan presented to Congress on Tuesday.
The plan, described by U.S. officials who were briefed on its contents, appears to raise new questions about the finality of Bush’s pledge to cut the U.S. nuclear arsenal to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads from its level of almost 6,000.
It also could provoke a storm of protest from Moscow, where Russian President Vladimir Putin would like a formal treaty permanently enshrining the cuts, as opposed to the more informal accord Bush prefers.
The Pentagon plan, called the Nuclear Posture Review, says that some of the nuclear warheads taken off of land-based missiles, bombers and submarines could be put in storage “as a hedge force” and redeployed if needed, according to a U.S. official. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
“They would always have the flexibility to redeploy those warheads if circumstances change,” the official said.
On another topic, nuclear testing, the Pentagon document says that the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons labs should be in a position to resume underground testing more rapidly than they can now if the president makes a decision to do so.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that Bush will continue, for now, to observe a self-imposed moratorium on underground nuclear testing that the elder President Bush initiated in 1992.
But, Rumsfeld said, “any country that has nuclear weapons has to be respectful of the enormous lethality and power of those weapons, and has a responsibility to see that they are safe and reliable … To the extent that can be done without testing, clearly that is the preference.”
The United States and Russia agreed last month to try to finish an agreement slashing their nuclear arsenals during the first half of 2002.
Under U.S. policy, the labs must be able to resume testing within 24 to 36 months of a decision by the president to test. The new Pentagon report says the labs should make preparations so that the window could be shortened, perhaps to a year.
But a senior Bush aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, recently told Knight Ridder that, in the proposed agreement, Washington wants the flexibility to deploy nuclear weapons above the 1,700-2,200 level that Bush promised Putin at their November summit if circumstances warrant.
That, some Democratic lawmakers and arms control advocates protest, would give Russia no incentive to destroy its own warheads that are taken off active duty. And warheads stored in Russia likely will be less secure than those stored in the United States, they note.
But senior White House and Pentagon officials have argued that formal, Cold War-style arms control agreements are obsolete and the United States should be free to adjust its nuclear arsenal upward or downward based on its security needs.