Nonnuclear strategic weapons: implications for arms control policy
The future acquisition of nonnuclear strategic weapons (NNSW) is likely to have profound consequences for a wide range of U.S. foreign and defense policy issues. This paper examines the implications of NNSW acquisition for arms control policy, focusing on the most salient technological, strategic, and political considerations associated with the introduction of this weaponry. Today's tactical precision guided munitions (PGMs) and sensor technologies may well be harbingers of a future wherein NNSW are an essential element in U.S. strategic forces. There are already visible portents of this. In July 1983, for example, the U. S. Congress explicitly put itself on record in favor of certain advanced conventional munitions as compared to nuclear munitions when it deleted funding for the W82 nuclear projectile for the 155mm cannon and replaced it with $50 million in new monies for improved conventional munitions. This sort of substitution of conventional for nuclear munitions--or as some argue, competition between nuclear and conventional capabilities--is a growing phenomenon and is likely to remain so. In the near-term, NNSW will probably be deployed on a gradual basis foe specialized missions.
- Research Organization:
- RAND Corp., Santa Monica, CA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5449123
- Report Number(s):
- AD-A-154863/5/XAB; RAND-P-7044
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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