Posted on 07/25/2002 7:43:05 PM PDT by RCW2001
US in the dark on Russian tactical nukes By Pamela Hess WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants Russia to share information about its top-secret tactical nuclear weapons -- small-yield weapons that could be used on a battlefield to devastating effect, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday. "We do not have a good fix on the number from an intelligence standpoint," Rumsfeld said. Russia has "many multiples more than we do of theater nuclear weapons and our interest is gaining a better understanding" of them, he said. He is not looking for a reduction in the figure. When United States and Russian officials meet in September to discuss how both sides will verify the destruction of other weapons, Rumsfeld intends to bring the matter up. "I ... want to see to it that theater nuclear weapons are brought up and talked about, not from a standpoint of (reductions) but of transparency," Rumsfeld said. Tactical nuclear weapons figure heavily in worst-case terrorist scenarios. Because of their small size, their large numbers and what was reported in 1996 by the CIA to be the inadequate security surrounding them in the former Soviet Union, these weapons could be tempting and vulnerable targets for well-financed terrorists. Rumsfeld testified Thursday on the Moscow Treaty, signed in June by U.S. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The agreement seeks to dramatically cut both countries' arsenals and must be ratified by the Senate. Russia is believed to have thousands of tactical nuclear warheads not covered by the treaty. These small weapons can be launched from tactical aircraft like fighter planes, according to U.S. intelligence and defense officials. The number of theater nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal is similarly classified, but by 1997 -- in accordance with a unilateral decision by President Bush in 1991 -- all those deployed in Europe were returned to the United Sates. They were destroyed by 1998, according to the Pentagon. As Russia draws down its strategic nuclear arsenal from roughly 7,000 to fewer than 2,200 in accord with the new reduction treaty with the United States, and as its conventional army continues to shrink from its Cold War size, Russia may rely more heavily on the tactical weapons to assure its territorial security. The security systems surrounding Russia's tactical nuclear warheads is believed to be relatively light; in 1996, Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch told the Senate that "a knowledgeable Russian has told us that, in his opinion, accounting procedures are so inadequate that an officer with access could remove a warhead, replace it with a readily available training dummy, and authorities might not discover the switch for as long as six months." Moreover, the weapons themselves are believed to have very few security features. With time, an experienced weapons handler could override fail-safe mechanisms and detonate the warhead. U.S. nuclear weapons and Russian strategic weapons are largely protected by "permissive action link," a device that automatically disables the warhead if it is tampered with by someone without special authority. Russian tactical weapons are not protected with the same devices, according to an Air Force issue paper on the subject.
UPI Pentagon Correspondent
From the International Desk
Published 7/25/2002 6:33 PM
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And to those who say Pakistan is our 'ally' .....Ha!
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