Denuclearized USAF Bombers OK Under New START: General

By Dave Majumdar Published: 4 May 2011 20:26

The U.S. Air Force will be able to keep a number of B-52H bombers flying as conventional weapons-only aircraft under the New START treaty with Russia, Defense officials told Congress May 4.

The denuclearized bombers would have to be certified as fully capable of flying conventional missions including dropping precision weapons by U.S. authorities before presentation before the Russians, said Air Force Gen. C. Robert Kehler, who leads U.S. Strategic Command.

Kehler was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"We haven't gotten to the complete end of that string yet about approvals to represent it that way with the Russians - that's pending," Kehler said. "We believe we have a good way to do that still allows them to be capable for conventional missions."

Principle Undersecretary of Defense of Policy James Miller, who was also testifying, added the Defense Department had not quite settled on exactly how the B-52s would be converted before being presented to Russia for "exhibition."

A total of 40 B-52s and 20 B-2 stealth bombers will be kept for the nuclear role as part of the treaty's limitation of 700 delivery vehicles per side, according to Miller's testimony.

The Air Force will keep 420 out of 450 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). However, the payload would be reduced to a single warhead per missile.

The Minuteman is capable of carrying all full loads of three warheads.

The U.S. Navy will fill out the rest of the nuclear triad with its fleet of 14 Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, which will carry "no more than 240 Trident II D5 [submarine launched ballistic missiles] at any time," Miller said in his testimony.

Miller said that both Russia and the U.S. had already conducted some of the steps required by the treaty. The two nations have exchanged nuclear weapons databases already.

The U.S. has exhibited the B-2 and B-1 stealth bombers to the Russians while the Russians have exhibited the RS-24, also known as the SS-27, road-mobile ICBM to the U.S., Kehler said.

The U.S. has also inspected a Russian SS-19 ICBM site, he added.

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