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A Proposal for a Ban on Nuclear SLCMs of All Ranges


Long-range sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) are one of the key remaining obstacles to completion of a U.S.-Soviet strategic arms reduction treaty (START). U.S. objections to the Soviet insistence on including limits on SLCMs in START have centered on the difficulty of verifying such limits without an unacceptable degree of intrusiveness. The prospect that disagreement over SLCM verification could greatly delay or even prevent the successful conclusion of START requires that this verification problem receive careful analysis. In this report we outline a specific proposal: to ban nuclear SLCMs of all ranges, leaving conventional SLCMs unconstrained. We also describe a verification regime that we believe can provide effective verification at a level of intrusiveness consistent with that of the other verification provisions of START.

     To understand the implications of any proposal to limit SLCMs, it is necessary to review the types and numbers of SLCMs deployed by the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviets have deployed SLCMs since the early 1960s. Over the years they developed several models, designed primarily for ship attack, most capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads, with ranges varying from approximately 50 to 550 kilometers. It is estimated, based on a count of launchers, that the Soviet Union currently has approximately 1,000 short-range SLCMs deployed. The number of Soviet SLCMs that carry nuclear warheads is unknown, but it is reasonable to estimate that between one-third and one-half are nuclear-armed.ยน

In 1983 the United States began deployment of a new, long-range SLCM, the Tomahawk. The Tomahawk airframe is the basis for several SLCM variants: a short-range, anti-ship variant, which carries only a


[[footnote]]
1. N. Polmar, Guide to the Soviet Navy, 4th ed. (annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986); T. B. Cochran et al., Nuclear Weapons Databook, vol. 4, Soviet Nuclear Weapons (New York: Ballinger, 1989).
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