- Influential advisers at the Pentagon are backing the
development of a new generation of low-yield nuclear weapons - so-called
mini-nukes - in a controversial report to be published this autumn.
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- The document, entitled Future Strategic Strike Force,
has been produced by the Defence Science Board, which has a Pentagon brief
to "transform the nation's armed forces to meet the demands placed
on them by a changing world order".
-
- The DSB's findings envisage a revamped nuclear arsenal
made up of small-scale missiles whose explosive impact would be easier
to control and could be targeted at smaller aggressive states. The most
radical part of the report argues for a move away from the Cold War view
of nuclear arms as catastrophic weapons of last resort.
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- The document is believed to have the strong backing of
Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, who last week called for a "bolder"
approach to national security in a leaked Pentagon memo. A month ago the
Senate eased restrictions on nuclear tests at the military's Nevada site,
where no new test has taken place since 1992.
-
- Privately, Defence Department officials describe it as
the logical development of the Pentagon's 2002 nuclear posture review,
which urged a renewed role for nuclear weapons in American military strategy.
-
- One former Pentagon official said of the DSB report:
"The authors are saying that cumbersome Cold War-style weapons are
no longer appropriate in an era when one superpower is dealing with a number
of terrorist threats and smaller, hostile states. Enemies of the United
States can gamble on them never being used."
-
- America's nuclear capability from the Cold War is described
in the report, which has been leaked to a specialist defence magazine,
as "not adequate to future national security needs". It proposes
steps to make US nuclear weapons "relevant to the threat environment"
in the era of the war on terrorism.
-
- Among the weapons programmes proposed is an enhanced
neutron bomb, capable of destroying deeply buried biological weapons caches,
and "nuclear bunker-busters" that can threaten terrorist cells
and hidden weapons of mass destruction. Military officers familiar with
the DSB study say that it states that smaller nuclear weapons, causing
less collateral damage, would constitute a more "credible" threat
to adversaries than traditional atomic missiles.
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- "Brutally, 'mini-nukes' would be easier to use,
and therefore more useful as a deterrent," said the former Pentagon
official.
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- Any resumption of testing or the development of new nuclear
weapons in the US would cause consternation among America's allies, particularly
in Japan. The mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba, expressed his concern
this month that "the policy of the United States has now shifted towards
something that will be used".
-
- Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, has told senior American diplomats that developing new weapons
could encourage other countries to violate the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty.
-
- "This is extremely serious," said Arjun Makhijani,
the president of the Washington-based Institute of Energy and Environmental
Research, which has produced a study of the Bush administration's developing
nuclear weapons strategy. "The appeal to deterrence is a smokescreen.
The desire is to develop nuclear weapons that can actually be used. The
United States is in danger of being at the leading edge of proliferation."
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- The DSB document is the latest signal that the Bush administration
is preparing to modernise its nuclear programme. In September the Senate
passed a White House-backed plan to reduce the preparation time required
for nuclear testing in Nevada. George Bush Snr had imposed a moratorium
in 1992.
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- At the time of the Senate vote Jon Kyl, a Republican
senator, argued that tests were likely to be needed given the nuclear ambitions
of countries such as North Korea and Iran. "We've had a self-imposed
moratorium on testing," said Mr Kyl. "Has it stopped other countries?
No. It shows a failed strategy."
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