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U.S. implementing post-Cold War, preemptive-based nuclear deterrence+
[December 30, 2005]

U.S. implementing post-Cold War, preemptive-based nuclear deterrence+


(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)WASHINGTON, Dec. 30_(Kyodo) _ The U.S. military has entered into an implementation phase of President George W. Bush's new nuclear doctrine, including preemptive nuclear strikes against "rogue states" that possess weapons of mass destruction such as North Korea and Iran, governmental sources and nuclear specialists told Kyodo News recently.



The U.S. Strategic Command, or STRATCOM, for potential nuclear operations during and after the Cold War set up a new command unit, called the Joint Functional Component Command Space and Global Strike, or JFCCSGS, early in 2005 to accomplish military offensive missions provided by the Nuclear Posture Review, a comprehensive blueprint of nuclear strategy the Defense Department submitted to Congress four years ago.

According to a recent STRATCOM announcement, the newly founded unit has "met requirements necessary to declare an initial operational capability" as of Nov. 18. A week before this announcement, the unit finished a command-post exercise, dubbed Global Lightening, which was linked with another exercise, called Vigilant Shield, conducted by the North American Aerospace Defend Command, or NORAD, in charge of missile defense for North America.


"After assuming several new missions in 2002, U.S. Strategic Command was reorganized to create better cooperation and cross-functional awareness," said Navy Capt. James Graybeal, a chief spokesperson for STRATCOM. "By May of this year, the JFCCSGS has published a concept of operations and began to develop its day-to-day operational requirements and integrated planning process."

"The command's performance during Global Lightning demonstrated its preparedness to execute its mission of proving integrated space and global strike capabilities to deter and dissuade aggressors and when directed, defeat adversaries through decisive joint global effects in support of STRATCOM," he added without elaborating about "new missions" of the new command unit that has around 250 personnel.

Nuclear specialists and governmental sources pointed out that one of its main missions would be to implement the 2001 nuclear strategy that includes an option of preemptive nuclear attacks on "rogue states" with WMDs.

"The sort of operational implementation of the Global Strike is CONCEPT PLAN (CONPLAN) 8022. That's the one that is the actual plan that the Navy and the Air Force translate into strike package for their submarines and bombers," said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear strategy expert and project director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based think tank.

Kristensen, who for a decade has obtained many internal military documents through Freedom Information Act (FOIA), said CONPLAN 8022 is "the overall umbrella plan for sort of the pre-planned strategic scenarios involving nuclear weapons."

"It's specifically focused on these new types of threats -- Iran, North Korea -- proliferators and potentially terrorists too," he said. "There's nothing that says that they can't use CONPLAN 8022 in limited scenarios against Russian and Chinese targets."

"It's depending on the scenario. The whole point of 8022 is that it's supposed to be extremely flexible. It's a new thing," Kristensen said.

One congressional source confirmed that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued an "alert order" that directed the military to activate CONPLAN 8022 in the spring of 2004. The source and other Republican source said that one of the missions assigned to the JFCCSGS is to execute CONPALN 8022.

Another military source suggested that Vigilant Shield, NORAD's exercise conducted simultaneously with Global Strike by STRATCOM, assumed one hypothetical scenario that an intermediate-range ballistic missile launched by North Korea against the United States was detected and intercepted by the missile defense system run by NORAD and that STRATCOM took charge of responsive strikes against North Korea.

These new implementing process of the new nuclear doctrine has stirred serious debate in Washington because this new deterrence initiative envisions the operational integration of nuclear and conventional weapons. This raises concern that the high threshold for the use of nuclear weapons retained since the beginning of the Cold War can be dramatically lowered.

"It's a package (of nuclear and conventional weapons). The implication of this obviously is that nuclear weapons are being brought down from a special category of being a last resort, or sort of the ultimate weapon, to being just another tool in the toolbox," said Kristensen.

The congressional source also expressed strong concern about a recent STRATCOM trend to improve accuracy of nuclear weapons to hit targets. If nuclear missile accuracy increases, each yield can be reduced, which critics think makes the nuclear option tempting for presidents because lower yields could limit collateral damage to civilians.

According to Peter Huessy, a nuclear strategist close to the Republican Party, Congress agreed to newly create an internal advisory group, called the Nuclear Policy Forum, in order to discuss the future implementation of Bush's nuclear doctrine. The group is likely to be led by Keith Payne, a former senior defense official and the architecture of the 2001 nuclear strategy, and John Foster, former associate director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, top nuclear lab center, Huessy said.

The Nuclear Policy Forum "is designed to assist Congress and congressional staff in understanding a nuclear policy put forward in the NPR and as implemented by the administration. I emphasize it is not to be against or different than the administration," Huessy added.

Republicans originally proposed the idea that the group would discuss future threat environment in 2025. But its long-term target date was pushed back to 2008, the Bush administration's final year, by Democrats who are concerned about the current direction of the future U.S. nuclear deterrence posture.

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