US should cut nuclear arsenal - report

A classified Pentagon report says the United States should slash its nuclear arsenal and replace it with precision conventional weapons, it was claimed today.

The Nuclear Posture Review, commissioned by Pentagon top brass, tells them it should also build a controversial missile defence system to deter other countries from attacking the United States, instead of relying on nuclear missiles.

Reports said the study recommends cutting the number of missiles the country holds from 7,000 to between 1,700 and 2,200.

The review is likely to provoke controversy by not recommending the decommissioned missiles be destroyed.

Instead it says they should be put in storage, where they could be reactivated if needed, as well as saying the process should take 10 years, far longer than arms control advocates have called for.

American deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz said: ‘‘We’re looking at a transformation of our deterrence posture from an almost exclusive emphasis on offensive nuclear forces to a force that includes defences as well as offences, that includes conventional strike capabilities as well as nuclear strike capabilities and includes a much reduced level of nuclear strike capability.’’

The review is the first of its type since 1994 and claims precision conventional weapons and warmer relations with Russia have made nuclear weapons less crucial.

It is the first time Pentagon planners have called for nuclear missiles to be replaced by conventional weapons, say reports.

But Pentagon insiders said that by not calling for the complete destruction of the decommissioned weapons, the report was recognising that relations with Russia could deteriorate, as could those with China.

Mr Wolfowitz said: ‘‘Recognising that the world can change in dangerous and unpredictable ways, we are putting more emphasis than we have in the last 10 or 15 years on that underlying infrastructure that allows you, including in the nuclear area, to rebuild capabilities or build new ones if the world changes.’’

Last year US president George W Bush pledged to make deep cuts in his country’s nuclear arsenal when he met Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Today arms control campaigners warned not destroying the weapons could lead to Russia doing the same thing, leading to the threat of renewed hostilities in the future.

Tom Zamora Collina, director of the Global Security Programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said: ‘‘If we put ours into storage, the Russians will probably do the same.’’