USNavy pode armar Trident com multiplas ogivas convencionais

[Penguin]

US Navy looks for global strike (Janes)
http://www.janes.com/defence/naval_forc ... _1_n.shtml

By Nick Brown and Katy Glassborow

The US Navy (USN) is looking to resurrect a plan to 'conventionalise'
some of its Trident fleet ballistic missiles, replacing their nuclear
payload with multiple high-explosive warheads.

The navy proposed similar Trident conversion studies in FY03 and
FY04, but these were flatly refused by congress. However, a
congressional source told JNI that "there is a real buzz about rapid
global strike in the Pentagon right now and the programme appears to
have floated back onto the table".

USN sources believe an Ohio-class submarine could be stationed in
Southern Ocean regions and be able to hit most targets on the planet
in around 30 minutes, firing missiles south over the pole.

The congressional source said that this timeliness was central to the
global strike requirement, radically shortening the engagement cycle
and enabling the US to get a massive amount of firepower onto a
rapidly emerging or fleeting target window, as well as providing a
conventional 'first-strike' pre-emptive capability.

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U.S. May Arm Subs With Conventional Warheads for Quicker Strike


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... Y&refer=us

U.S. May Arm Subs With Conventional Warheads for Quicker Strike
Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The Pentagon wants to spend up to $500 million through 2011 to replace nuclear warheads with conventional warheads on some submarine-launched ballistic missiles, according to budget documents.

The purpose is to allow quicker preemptive attacks on deeply buried enemy command centers or stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. U.S. submarines carry ballistic missiles that fly at supersonic speeds, faster than those launched from land- based silos or airplanes.

``This weapon would give the U.S. global, conventional preemption -- a first-strike capability -- in 30 minutes, to attack North Korean or Iranian WMD or leadership facilities,'' said William Arkin, a former Army intelligence analyst and independent defense consultant and author.

The fiscal 2007-2011 defense budget plan calls for building as many as 96 conventional warheads for installation on 24 of the Navy's roughly 336 nuclear D5 Trident missiles, according to a 33-page Dec. 20 memo signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. Each missile carries up to four warheads.

The U.S. would have to work out notification procedures with its allies as well as China and Russia to prevent a nuclear misunderstanding, said Stan Norris, a senior analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the author of an annual compilation of U.S. nuclear forces.

``While there are advantages, especially in being able to hit a target within 20-30 minutes, there are important questions that will need answers,'' he said.

`How Differentiate?'

For example, ``how would Russian early warning radars differentiate between conventional missile attacks aimed at say al-Qaeda caves on the Afghan-Pakistan border and those aimed at Russian missile silos?'' Norris said. ``Is it possible that the U.S. would notify Russia or China of an impending attack to avoid the possibility of Russian or Chinese misinterpretation?''

Arkin agreed. ``Before we start shooting ballistic missiles at countries we had better work to resolve the question of false warnings and accidental nuclear war, particularly if North Korea were ever a target,'' he said.

The U.S. presently can launch non-nuclear strikes using B-2 bombers based in Missouri or Tomahawk cruise missiles off submarines and surface vessels. Neither weapon travels as fast as a sub-launched ballistic missile.

This new strategy ``places the ballistic missile submarine on the front line of U.S. offensive capabilities,'' Arkin said. ``Trident missiles will be able to place a conventional warhead on target in only 12 minutes, far quicker than any other long- range weapon.''

Any strikes would be coordinated by a new joint-service unit that the U.S. Strategic Command set up in November at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

Lockheed Missile Improved

The Pentagon commitment suggests contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. has made progress in improving the accuracy of the D5 missile, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons analyst with the Federation of American Scientists. Cold War nuclear missiles were built less for precision than for widespread destruction.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems since 1995 has spent its own research money to improve the accuracy of a conventional Trident missile. Test flights in 2002 and 2005 demonstrated ``the feasibility of achieving near-tactical GPS accuracy with conventional warheads on the D5,'' spokesman Thomas Greer said in an e-mail statement.

Slow Down, Maneuver

The 2005 test showed that a conventional warhead bearing on a target could slow down and maneuver to receive last-minute Global Positioning System satellite coordinates, ``providing capabilities that would be needed for the delivery of some types of conventional warheads to their targets,'' Greer said.

About 2,500 Lockheed Martin employees work on the Trident D5 missile program in California, Georgia, Florida and Washington State.

``The warhead could possibly provide Trident missiles with the accuracy to strike within 10 meters of their intended, stationary targets,'' the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a Sept. 7 report.

A Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. official in July laid out these finding to the Pentagon Defense Science Board Task Force on Nuclear Capabilities and said it could start producing the warheads by 2010 if it received money this year, CRS said.

The long-range budget plan calls for spending $127 million in fiscal 2007 and $225 million in fiscal 2008 to develop and buy a warhead with a capability to penetrate ``hard and deeply buried targets,'' according to England's memo, which also spells out other major budget decisions.

Gives `Both Options'

Kristensen said the Pentagon's new strategy will enable the Navy to meet the Strategic Command's goal ``of having both nuclear and conventional strategic strike options available to the president.''

``U.S. Strategic Command is examining ways for delivering prompt, precise strike globally,'' the command said in a Jan. 9 statement e-mailed to Bloomberg News.

``A requirement for a specific weapon system has not been identified but leveraging existing systems has the potential to quickly deliver capability to the warfighter,'' the statement said.

``Increased precision may allow targets currently held at risk with nuclear weapons to be targeted with conventional weapons, providing options other than nuclear weapons for prompt global strike,'' it said.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: January 17, 2006 11:27 EST

[Einsamkeit]

eu ja tinha imaginado isso, pena que isso é pra quem pode

[VICTOR]

O problema desse troço é o pânico que pode se instalar numa Rússia ou China, e isso pode ser perigoso. Imagine, o coitado do oficial de defesa aérea e antimísseis vê na tela que há mísseis balísticos cruzando o planeta...

[Spectral]

O problema desse troço é o pânico que pode se instalar numa Rússia ou China, e isso pode ser perigoso. Imagine, o coitado do oficial de defesa aérea e antimísseis vê na tela que há mísseis balísticos cruzando o planeta..

Concordo completamente, nem todos teriam o sangue-frio e bom-senso do Coronel Stanislav Petrov que em 1983 poderá ter evitado uma catástrofe inimaginável:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov


http://www.brightstarsound.com/

[P44]

Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov (Russian: Станислав Евграфович Петров) (born c. 1939) is a retired Russian Army colonel who, on September 26, 1983, averted a potential nuclear war by refusing to accept that the United States had launched missiles against the USSR, despite the indications given by his computerized early warning systems. The Soviet computer reports were later shown to have been in error, and Petrov is credited with preventing World War III and the devastation of much of the Earth by nuclear weapons. Because of military secrecy and international policy, Petrov's actions were kept secret until 1998.

[Pantera]

A russia está a desenvolver um novo tipo de míssel que seria o mais potente do mundo.Parece que era um míssel com várias ogivas nucleares,Putin disse que não havia nada assim na terra,e facilmente "quebrava" o escudo de defesa anti-míssel americano,portanto estes tridentes nunca serão os melhores do mundo.

[Einsamkeit]

Pantera, misseis com varias ogivas existem a Decadas, Ele deve estar falando do Topol-M ou do Bulava, esses estao mais de uma decada no minimo a frente dos Eua

[Guillermo Muñoz]

Estoy de acuerdo con VICTOR, ¿cómo reaccionar y qué hacer si detectas el lanzamiento de un misil transcontinental sin saber con qué tipo de cabeza va armado? O sea, puedes iniciar la WWIII por un error de interpretación, ya que puede ser el caso que los gringos desidan eliminar una amenaza con poder destructivo convensional (HE o similar), pero usando un vehículo que hasta hoy se usaba sólo para cargas nucleares!!!
No me gusta este asunto; todo podría terminar muy mal!!!

[Pantera]

Pantera, misseis com varias ogivas existem a Decadas, Ele deve estar falando do Topol-M ou do Bulava, esses estao mais de uma decada no minimo a frente dos Eua

Sim eu sei,mas apenas estava a referir a um míssel com várias ogivas nucleares que seria dotado de um sistema do qual nenhum do mundo o equivalaria.....nem mesmo o sistema de defesa anti missivel americano poderia fazer alguma coisa contra ele..

saudações