U.S. mulls replacing few nuke warheads

From combined dispatches

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The Pentagon is considering a plan to replace the nuclear warheads on some intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional weapons for pre-emptive strikes on terrorists, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.

“The United States is looking into the possibility of taking a relatively small number of our ballistic missiles and taking a nuclear weapon off and putting a conventional weapon on,” Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters after a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov at a lodge here on the banks of the Chena River.

“If either of our countries or friends and allies were threatened at some number of years into the future with a weapon of mass destruction … I think any president … would like to have available a conventional weapon that could attack that target swiftly and accurately and precisely, and not feel that the only thing they had might be a nuclear weapon, which they would not want to use.”

Mr. Rumsfeld said he hoped Russia would consider the idea too, but Mr. Ivanov was not enthused.

“I would like to stress this point: These are preliminary [U.S.] plans, and for sure these plans raise Russian concern,” Mr. Ivanov said. “There can be different solutions” to the problem, such as using cruise missiles in that role, he added.

Earlier yesterday, Mr. Rumsfeld had his first look inside the nerve center of the U.S. missile defense system at Alaska’s Fort Greely, and climbed down a steel ladder into one of 10 silos, each of which houses a 54-foot-long missile interceptor. An 11th interceptor is to be installed at Fort Greely today, officials said.

The Pentagon chief was cautious when asked afterward whether he thought the shield was ready for use against North Korean missiles such as those test-fired unsuccessfully July 4. He said he would not be fully convinced until the multibillion-dollar defense system has undergone more complete and realistic testing.

“I want to see it happen,” he said. “A full end-to-end” demonstration is needed “where we actually put all the pieces” of the highly complex and far-flung missile defense system together and see whether it would succeed in destroying a warhead in flight, he said.

“That just hasn’t happened,” he said, adding that some elements of the missile defense system are yet to come on-line, including some of the radars and other sensors used to track the target missile.

But “I have a lot of confidence in these folks, and I have a lot of confidence in the work that has been done,” he said.

Mr. Rumsfeld also said that North Korea’s missile launches proved that Pyongyang also is a threat in the spread of missile technology to terrorists.

“I think the real threat that North Korea poses in the immediate future is more one of proliferation than a danger to South Korea,” he said.

Asked to elaborate, Mr. Rumsfeld said the overall condition of the North Korean military has deteriorated. He mentioned that North Korean air force pilots are able to fly less than 50 hours a year — less than one-quarter the training done by U.S. pilots.

“I don’t see them, frankly, as an immediate military threat to South Korea,” he said.