A congressional subcommittee voted Wednesday to approve a measure that
could dramatically increase spending on a controversial program to manufacture
new generations of replacement nuclear warheads.
W-80 nucealar warhead being loaded. Photo c.1979.
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In a little-noticed section of a larger defense spending measure, the
House Strategic Forces Subcommittee said that if the Department of Defense
decides to delay an expensive program for refurbishing an existing cruise
missile warhead, known as the W-80, the money should be diverted to what is
known as the Reliable Replacement Warhead program.
The amount could mark a substantial increase for the controversial
program.
Congress authorized $25 million last year for the RRW, which is in its
earliest design phase.
According to congressional staffers, the amount of money eligible to be
diverted from the W-80 warhead amounts to approximately $27 million, which
would instantly double the budget for the future program.
Advocacy groups say the amount could go higher. Jay Coghlan, director of
Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, an arms control group, said there is $102 million
in this year's budget for the refurbishment of the W-80, and an additional $480
million is expected to be spent over the next three years.
Most of the weapons in the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, built during
the Cold War, are 30 years old or more. The Bush administration has said that
they are and will remain for years in perfect working order. But the
administration has said the cost of maintaining the aging weapons and
uncertainty over their future effectiveness requires the production of a new
generation of warheads. The new weapons would be more reliable, safer, easier
to build and easier to maintain, administration officials say.
But critics, many of them scientists with long experience working on
nuclear weapons issues, argue that the current weapons will remain usable for
decades, that the RRW program is wasteful and expensive, and that it would send
the wrong message at a time when the United States is struggling to prevent
other countries from producing nuclear weapons.
The transfer of funds to the RRW program would be contingent on a
Department of Defense decision to delay the refurbishment of the W-80 warhead.
Sources close to the Pentagon said a debate has been raging on whether such
refurbishment is needed.
Analysts said Wednesday's vote indicates that there is growing sentiment
in Congress to push ahead on restarting nuclear weapons production for the
first time since the 1980s, when the United States shut down most of its
weapons manufacturing sites.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, a member of the subcommittee, called
the vote "a sound one that allows for a better allocation and preservation of
the resources that are available to us."
©2006 San Francisco Chronicle
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