September 11th 2001 wargames - batcave 911
Global Guardian is
one of many "practice Armageddons," as they sometimes are called,
that the U.S. military stages to test its readiness. That the
exercise was, according to briefers, "in full swing" at the time
the United States came under attack is at least an odd
coincidence.
What a strange coincidence.
Offutt was already suspicious with Warren Buffet, the big charity
event and Bush landing there. But there was also a high scale
excerise under way.
Copyright 2002 The Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha World Herald (Nebraska)
February 27, 2002, Wednesday SUNRISE EDITION
HEADLINE: Inside StratCom on September 11 Offutt exercise took
real-life twist
BYLINE: By Joe Dejka
SOURCE: WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
When terrorists struck America on September 11, U.S. bombers were
sitting gassed up on the ground, armed with nuclear weapons, as
part of an annual war exercise.
The goal of the exercise: test the U.S. Strategic Command's ability to fight a nuclear war.
One aspect of the exercise, called Global Guardian, involved loading nuclear weapons onto airplanes. The airplanes did not, however, take off with the weapons onboard, according to briefers at the Strategic Command's headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base near Bellevue.
Global Guardian is one of many "practice Armageddons," as they sometimes are called, that the U.S. military stages to test its readiness. That the exercise was, according to briefers, "in full swing" at the time the United States came under attack is at least an odd coincidence.
After keeping details of the day quiet for months, StratCom briefers last week provided members of the news media with information about the goings-on in the command headquarters that day.
Another part of the Global Guardian exercise put three military command aircraft packed with sophisticated communications equipment in the air.
The three E-4B National Airborne Operations Center planes, nicknamed "Doomsday" planes during the Cold War, are based at Offutt.
The airplanes give top government officials alternative command posts from which to direct U.S. forces, execute war orders and coordinate actions by civil authorities in times of national emergency.
Aboard one of the three planes was the Federal Advisory Committee, whose chairman is retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft. The plane had been dispatched to bring committee members to Offutt to observe Global Guardian.
Military authorities canceled the exercise after the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, but all three of the E-4Bs remained in the air.
The attacks on that Tuesday morning occurred as a tour group was preparing to visit StratCom's underground command center, Offutt briefers said.
The visitors were in town for the ninth annual Buffett Classic golf tournament, scheduled to get under way that day. The event raises money for children's charities and attracts high-powered business and news media people from around the country.
Some of the visitors already were at StratCom, having breakfast with then-commander in chief Adm. Richard Mies.
The group was scheduled to tour the center and receive an unclassified mission briefing.
When the plane hit the second World Trade Center tower, Mies had to excuse himself from the group.
Staff members had left the command center in anticipation of the tour group's visit. When the tour was canceled, the battle staff reconvened in the center.
Base security went to its highest level.
All eight giant video screens in the command center were loaded up with data, providing Mies the latest information on the unfolding drama as well as information on the status of America's strategic forces involved in the exercise.
Although StratCom staff received word earlier in the day that President Bush might come to Offutt during the crisis, actual confirmation came only 20 minutes before his arrival, briefers said.
The president first spent about 20 minutes in the command center, where StratCom staff used the video screens to bring him up to date on the attacks and their aftermath.
StratCom briefers described Bush as "very collected" and concerned during the briefing.
Then Bush went to another room in the headquarters, the Joint Intelligence Center, where he conducted a multichannel video conference with members of the National Security Council.
StratCom briefers declined to comment further on the president's visit.
The Washington Post produced the following account of Bush's time at Offutt based on interviews with the president, his top aides and other government officials:
Shortly after arriving at Offutt at 1:50 p.m., Bush told his highest-ranking Secret Service agent that he wanted to return to Washington as soon as possible.
As Bush arrived in the command center, staff there were tracking a commercial airliner on its way from Spain to the United States. It was giving out an emergency signal, indicating that it might have been hijacked.
Bush remembered a voice booming out from a loudspeaker. "Do we have permission to shoot down this aircraft?"
"Make sure you've got the ID," the president responded. "You follow this guy closely to make sure."
It was a false alarm.
At 2:30 p.m., Bush convened the National Security Council via secure video links from various command centers in Washington.
During the meeting, CIA Director George Tenet reported that he was virtually certain that Osama bin Laden and his network were behind the attacks.
Tenet said al-Qaida was the only terrorist organization in the world that had the capability to pull off such well-coordinated attacks. Intelligence monitoring, he said, had overheard a number of known bin Laden operatives congratulating each other after the strikes.
The council discussed whether it was safe for Bush to return to Washington and if banks, airlines and the Pentagon should continue business as usual the next day.
As the meeting was ending, Bush said: "We will find these people. They will pay. And I don't want you to have any doubt about it."
He boarded Air Force One, and it took off from Offutt at 3:36 p.m.
GRAPHIC: Color Photos/2 President Bush, center, conducts a video conference with members of the National Security Council while at Offutt Air Force Base near Bellevue on September 11. Next to Bush at the table are White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, left, and Adm. Richard Mies. Air Force One, carrying President Bush, leaves Offutt Air Force Base after a stop during the terrorist crisis of Sept. 11.; THE WHITE HOUSE/1, JIM SCHIEFELBEIN FOR THE WORLD-HERALD/1
LOAD-DATE: February 28, 2002
Copyright 2002 The Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha World Herald (Nebraska)
September 8, 2002, Sunday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1a;
LENGTH: 1465 words
HEADLINE: When Bush arrived, Offutt sensed history in the making
BYLINE: By Joe Dejka
SOURCE: WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
BODY:
The elevator doors slid open 60 feet underground near Bellevue.
One Secret Service agent strode out, then another.
Then came President Bush, looking much different than Maj. Shane Courville recalled him from three months earlier.
Back then, Omaha had College World Series fever, and the president was in town to toss out the first pitch, cheerily greeting the crowd.
Courville, 41, and his son were among the throng that greeted Bush at Offutt Air Force Base. The president signed a flag for them.
But on Sept. 11, in a stark corridor deep under the lawn at the U.S. Strategic Command headquarters, Courville saw grim determination in the face of his commander in chief.
Courville and other officers who encountered Bush at Offutt said they retain the indelible image of a president sincere, gracious and in control.
They and White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett provided firsthand accounts last week of the president's Nebraska visit and the reasons behind it.
Air Force One had taken off abruptly from Sarasota, Fla., after Bush learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Then the rumors started pouring in, an atmosphere Bartlett called the "fog of war": unconfirmed reports of a car bomb outside the State Department in Washington; an unidentified object over the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas; a plane going down on the eastern Kentucky border.
The president, based on the counsel of Vice President Dick Cheney and others, decided to head west to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Once there, after further talks with aides in Washington, they decided to go to Offutt.
Officials at Offutt heard about noon that the president might come. Rear Adm. Jay Donnelly was the operations officer in the StratCom command center.
For more than a week, the battle staff had been engaged in the annual Global Guardian exercise, which involved testing command and control of the nation's nuclear-armed missiles, submarines and bombers.
When the second World Trade Center tower was hit, the exercise was canceled, and the battle staff moved to the real-world crisis.
The staff immediately began monitoring intelligence sources and news media around the world.
Once the president's plane left Barksdale, and with the threat of an attack on Air Force One still rumored, Bush needed a secure place to hold a teleconference with his advisers, Donnelly said.
"He needed communications capability, and he needed security because we didn't know the full extent that this attack was taking," he said. "Offutt Air Force Base and, specifically, StratCom, offer a great deal of both. This is a very secure environment, especially in our command center underground."
The base got just 20 minutes' notice of Bush's imminent arrival.
As Air Force One landed at Offutt, Bartlett said, it taxied up next to one of the National Airborne Operations Center E-4Bs, known as the "Doomsday Plane" at the height of the Cold War. The E-4Bs, military versions of the Boeing 747, are stationed at Offutt.
"It was a surreal feeling pulling up next to it," he said. "It was from a different era for a different purpose, but it was relevant."
Instead of taking limousines to one of the buildings on base, the president and his staff were met by camouflaged Humvees. "It was a heavily armed convoy, more so than a motorcade," Bartlett said.
They drove to an auxiliary entrance to the command center, what Bartlett described as a "concrete-brick shed-looking thing with a door on it."
Bush walked into the command center to find the battle staff busy, the chairs full.
Donnelly announced his presence: "Ladies and gentlemen, the president."
Everyone came to attention. Bush told them to sit down. He took his seat, front-row center. Adm. Richard Mies, then the commander in chief of StratCom, sat to his left. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card sat to his right, with Donnelly next to Card.
Bush joined a conference call with Cheney, military leaders and senior advisers.
One video screen on the wall projected CNN. Another showed the status of all airborne aircraft, provided by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, to track Federal Aviation Administration efforts to clear the sky. Other screens showed a chronology of events and the number of known casualties.
Donnelly said Bush "was very much in control. Obviously, he was concerned about what was happening. He was calm. He was articulate. ... He was presidential."
The briefing in the command center lasted only about 20 minutes. But it left a lasting impression on Senior Master Sgt. Lee Arnold, 42, chief of command- post procedures.
"When he was announced and he joined the conference (call), he sat here and said, 'I'm at Offutt Air Force Base with a couple hundred of the finest Americans,'" Arnold said. "That caused me to sit there and go, 'Wow, here we are, doing our job, and the president's here.'"
Capt. Tim Swanson, a 26-year-old intelligence briefer, knew he was witnessing something historic.
"It was extremely sobering," he said.
Cheney, who was familiar with Offutt's capabilities, suggested that the president move to the Video Teleconferencing Center in the StratCom underground, where he could have a secure conference with a smaller audience, Donnelly said.
As Bush headed out the door, he turned around. The room jumped to attention.
Donnelly recalled Bush saying, "I just want every one of you to know that what you do for your country is deeply appreciated, and we need you now more than we needed you before."
The words sounded sincere, from the heart.
"You could have heard a pin drop in that room," Donnelly said.
Down the hall, in the Video Teleconferencing Center where the president was headed, two men stood ready to perform a technological marvel.
Wary of Murphy's Law, Donald Richards, 66, chief of the visual-presentations section, and Jay Wentzell, 40, chief of the intelligence policy and programs branch, tested their secure, worldwide video teleconferencing equipment. In case the system failed, they set up a secure phone outside the room.
They also tidied up the center and put out water pitchers for the visitors.
The teleconferencing system is used by the StratCom commander to talk with other top military commanders and the secretary of defense.
"We were expecting the entourage to come in first, or the Secret Service or whoever, but the first person through the door was the president," Wentzell said.
Bush took a seat, Adm. Mies beside him. Bush's staff took two rows of seats behind them.
The teleconference provided not only face-to-face conferencing using a video screen split into quarters, but audio links for 15 to 20 agencies, Cabinet members, organizations and key advisers, Wentzell said.
"If you've ever been in the White House, in the Cabinet Room, there's this great big table there, and that's essentially what they were having at that time, a Cabinet meeting," he said.
The points of discussion were much the same as those that the American people heard in the president's televised address later that night, he said.
During the conference, Bartlett said, the staff "cooled our jets" outside.
Bartlett said some were saying that if intelligence officials advised that Bush shouldn't return to Washington, "there was the possibility that the president may have to address the nation from Nebraska."
Bartlett said he was checking with Offutt staffers on satellite capabilities and other matters in case that had to be done. He also started working on the text of Bush's speech.
The Secret Service, he said, didn't want Bush to go back to the White House. But Wentzell said it was clear that the president wanted to head home instead of addressing the nation from a tunnel under Offutt.
"He knew that he had to address the American people, and he wasn't going to do it from here," he said. "And he wasn't going to do it from Barksdale or anyplace in between. He was going to do it from Washington, and he did that night."
After 45 minutes or so in the conference, Bartlett said, Bush "came barreling out and said, 'We're going home.'
"He said, 'I'm not going to let a tinhorn terrorist keep me out of Washington.'"
Loaded with fresh meals from the Offutt flight kitchen, Air Force One flew back to Washington with a fighter escort and landed at Andrews Air Force Base.
The group boarded three helicopters and flew over the Pentagon. As they looked out at the devastation, Bartlett said, the president said, "This is what the first war of the 21st century looks like."
GRAPHIC: Color Photo/1 Bill Batson/1 The president's stop at Offutt Air Force Base was memorable for, from left, Maj. Shane Courville, Senior Master Sgt. Lee Arnold and Capt. Tim Swanson. B&W Photo/1 The White House/1 To ensure the utmost security on September 11, President Bush communicated with his Cabinet and federal agencies in Washington through the U.S. Strategic Command's underground Video Teleconferencing Center.; BILL BATSON/THE WORLD-HERALD/1sf THE WHITE HOUSE/1
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 2002
Copyright 2002 The Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha World Herald (Nebraska)
September 10, 2002, Tuesday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A;
LENGTH: 1676 words
HEADLINE: Final words, final hours before all changed The day before the attacks on the World Trade Center was like any other for most.
BYLINE: By Stephen Buttry
SOURCE: WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
BODY:
The big change for many in the Omaha area that day was the closing
of the westbound lanes on the Interstate 480 bridge across the
Missouri River.
The next day everything changed.
For the generations that will never forget the day that has become known as 9/11, September 10, 2001, was just another day. The day before.
As the 19 terrorists prepared their deadly attack, people in the Midlands pursued the mundane and profound activities of everyday life.
People worked that Monday. Roberts Dairy bottled 110,000 gallons of milk. Carlson Hospitality Worldwide fielded 14,932 calls and made 4,798 hotel reservations at its Omaha reservation center. Workers prepared exhibits for the next day's opening of Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island and the Omaha Products Show at the Civic Auditorium.
Gary Schwendiman decided to attend a meeting in Washington that Monday, rather than spend the first few days of the week at his firm's new office in the World Trade Center.
Schwendiman and his son, Todd, run Schwendiman Partners, a Lincoln investment firm. They had opened a new international office in June 2001 on the 78th floor of the north tower.
Rather than working in New York that week, Gary Schwendiman decided to attend the board meeting in Washington of Everest Funds Management, a mutual fund led by Omaha businessman Vin Gupta.
After the meeting, Schwendiman played golf at Burning Tree Club in Bethesda, Md. He flew home late that evening on Gupta's jet. Todd Schwendiman worked past midnight in his tower office.
"Todd locked the office up in New York about the time my head hit the pillow in Lincoln," Gary recalled.
People played that Monday. Papillion-La Vista beat Omaha Burke, 20-13, in football.
Thomas Gouttierre, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, was the morning speaker at the Loveland Golden K Kiwanis. He told the club of the threat of al-Qaida. Not that Gouttierre foresaw the next day's attack. But he had followed the group's activities as a U.N. senior political affairs officer in 1996 and 1997.
In Gouttierre's September 10 speech, Golden K Kiwanis members heard a preview of hundreds of interviews Gouttierre would grant in the weeks ahead. He told about the "unholy alliance" among Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, al-Qaida, Pakistan's intelligence service and Muslim extremists in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Gouttierre also received disturbing news that day, that Ahmed Shah Massood, leader of the Northern Alliance forces that were fighting the Taliban, had been attacked. Gouttierre immediately saw the hand of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in the attack. Initial news reports did not say whether Massood survived. Gouttierre assumed correctly that this meant he was dead.
Also that day, Gouttierre prepared for the weekly three-hour lecture in his Tuesday international studies class. His scheduled lecture topic for September 11 was international terrorism.
People spent money that Monday. The Omaha data center of First Data Resources processed 21,852,530 credit card transactions. Almost 700 people visited Borsheim's. First National Bank processed 2.1 million merchant transactions.
Fire Capt. Rick Klein spent September 10 making last-minute preparations for a class that members of Lincoln's urban search and rescue team would take the next day. Klein is logistics manager of the team, which specializes in working in the unstable debris of fallen buildings.
The team's class scheduled for the next day was the "Structural Collapse Technician Course." Before the end of the month, the Lincoln crew would be sifting the wreckage of the largest structural collapse ever.
People got in trouble that Monday. Omaha police filed 337 incident reports.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss was attending the annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics, at the Marriott Hotel in the World Trade Center.
Friday evening, Goss had dined with his wife, Jackie, at the Windows on the World restaurant atop the north tower. He remembers the spectacular view of Manhattan.
On Sunday, Goss had read a research paper at the conference. His paper on the Internet's impact on productivity won a competition, for which Goss received a plaque at Monday night's awards dinner.
Goss drank too much coffee and didn't sleep well that night. He changed plans to catch an early flight out of town. He left the Marriott less than six hours before it would collapse under the debris of the towers.
Before Goss would make it back to Creighton Wednesday night, the association sent out another plaque, assuming the original was lost in the catastrophe.
People ailed and healed that Monday. Seventy patients underwent surgery at Nebraska Health System hospitals in Omaha, and 144 patients visited the emergency room.
Gov. Mike Johanns visited the College of St. Mary in the morning and held a press conference on health-care grants. After returning to Lincoln, he hosted a delegation of visitors from Peru.
At the governor's mansion that evening, Johanns dined with visiting California officials, interested in expanded use of ethanol to help cut air pollution.
People flew that Monday. Thirty airplanes took off and landed at Offutt Air Force Base.
On the last day that Afghanistan would remain obscure to America's public, UNO's Peter Tomsen met in Rome with the nation's exiled king, Mohammad Zaher Shah.
Tomsen, a retired ambassador and UNO's ambassador-in-residence, worked unofficially to bring together various Afghan exiles, hoping to lay the groundwork for a post-Taliban government.
While they were meeting, the king was stunned to receive word that Massood, the Northern Alliance leader whom Tomsen had met in June, had been attacked in Tajikistan.
Tomsen won the king's support for an office to promote a loya jirga, Afghanistan's traditional national assembly. That evening, Tomsen worked on winning similar support from royal relatives he thought were undermining the unity effort. He took six of them to dinner at an Italian seafood restaurant. The bill came to about $ 300.
People governed that Monday. The Council Bluffs City Council approved an $ 8,000 pay raise for Mayor Tom Hanafan. The Bellevue school board approved a $ 7,200 pay raise for Superintendent John Deegan. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials in Omaha interviewed about 40 immigrants applying for naturalization or seeking a change in status.
Steve Beumler, an Omaha account executive with ACI Worldwide, was originally supposed to fly into New York's LaGuardia Airport, but a connection mix-up sent him to Newark International Airport.
He needed to be in downtown New York for a business meeting at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
A downpour as he walked to a Manhattan restaurant soaked Beumler's pants to his knees. He sat through a steak dinner at Harry's of Hanover Square with soggy socks and shoes.
After dinner, he went back to the hotel and hung up his wet clothes in the bathroom. He made notes for his business meeting and went to bed.
People learned that Monday. Attendance at Omaha Public Schools was 46,065. Parents attended open houses at magnet schools in the evening.
Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey's wife, Sarah Paley, gave birth to a son, Henry, by Caesarean section at 12:23 p.m. Eastern time at Hackensack Memorial Hospital in Hackensack, N.J.
Kerrey, who trimmed the umbilical cord, remembers thinking, "he's alive and he's healthy and he's beautiful."
People built that Monday. Construction crews at the First National Tower installed the gas main to the 37th level and water lines from the 24th to 34th level.
At the West Center Chapel in Omaha, family and friends of Luella Stebbins gathered to remember and mourn. Her funeral would be September 11 at 10:30 a.m. A native of Center, Neb., she had died Sept. 6 in Des Moines of Wegener's granulomatosis.
That night, her 13-year-old grandson, Kyle Stebbins of Lincoln, posted a Web site paying tribute to his grandmother.
People toured that Monday. The Henry Doorly Zoo had 1,780 visitors.
At Strategic Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Adm. Richard Mies directed an annual training exercise. Bombers, missile crews and submarines around the country and off U.S. shores followed orders from StratCom's command bunker as the Global Guardian exercise began its second scheduled week.
The exercise would end abruptly the next morning. By afternoon, President Bush was in the bunker.
People were born and died that Monday. The Nebraska Health and Human Services System recorded 87 births and 39 deaths.
At the Joslyn Art Museum, a noteworthy group of visitors gathered for a dinner in the fountain court and entertainment in the Witherspoon Auditorium by pianist-composer Marvin Hamlisch and tenor Stephen Lehew.
Warren Buffett's golf-and-tennis fund-raiser was scheduled for September 11, bringing to Omaha celebrities from sports, entertainment and business.
About 70 to 80 of the guests gathered at the Joslyn the evening of Sept. 10. Susie Buffett, coordinator of her father's Omaha Classic, recalls people commenting the next day about the final song the musicians performed, Hamlisch's "One Song."
The lyrics, uplifting on Monday evening, would echo eerily on Tuesday: "If we all sing one song, one song of love, one song of peace, one song to make all our troubles cease. One hope, one dream, imagine what tomorrow would bring if we all sing one song."
Sources: This story is based on interviews with Gary Schwendiman, Todd Schwendiman, Ernie Goss, Thomas Gouttierre, Rick Klein, Mike Johanns, Peter Tomsen, Jim Kanter, Steve Beumler, Bob Kerrey, Wes Stebbins of Lincoln, Strategic Command spokesman Capt. James Taylor and Susie Buffett. Figures were provided by the agencies and businesses cited or came from World-Herald files.
GRAPHIC: Color Photos/2 Jeff Bundy/1 Gary Schwendiman of Lincoln decided not to work out of the World Trade Center on Sept. 10. Rudy Smith/1 Steve Beumler, an Omaha account executive with ACI Worldwide, with a map of Manhattan. Beumler found himself walking to a restaurant in a downpour in Manhattan on the night of September 10.,; RUDY SMITH/THE WORLD-HERALD/1, JEFF BUNDY/THE WORLD-HERALD/1sf
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 2002
Copyright 2001 Gale Group, Inc.
ASAP
Copyright 2001 Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
March 1, 2001
SECTION: No. 2, Vol. 57; Pg. 77 ; ISSN: 0096-3402
IAC-ACC-NO: 72050010
LENGTH: 2198 words
HEADLINE: U.S. nuclear forces, 2001.
BYLINE: Norris, Robert S.; Arkin, William M.; Kristensen, Hans M.
BODY:
Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). A four-part program to
upgrade Minuteman missiles continues:
First, missile-alert facilities were updated with Rapid Execution and Combat Targeting consoles.
Second, the ongoing Guidance Replacement Program will extend the life of the guidance system beyond the year 2020 and improve Minuteman III accuracy to near that of the current MX--a circular error probable of 100 meters. The new guidance set achieved initial operational capability in August 2000, when the first 10 sets installed on missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base (AFB) surpassed the on-alert requirement of 720 hours. This program, scheduled to be completed by 2008, will cost $ 1.3 billion.
Third, the Propulsion Replacement Program (PRP) involves "repouring" the first and second stages, incorporating the latest solid propellant and bonding technologies, and replacing obsolete or environmentally unsafe materials and components. The propellant will be replaced in nine missiles in 2001, and in 33, 86, and 96 missiles over the next three years.
Fourth, the Propulsion System Rocket Engine Life Extension Program is designed to refurbish the post-boost, liquid-propulsion stage of the missiles.
The first successful firing of PRP stage-one rocket motor took place at the Thiokol Propulsion test range in Promontory, Utah, last October. The air force is expected to award a $ 1.6 billion contract in early 2001 for full-scale PRP production through September 2008. The air force transferred responsibility for maintaining missile readiness to TRW, Inc., a private contractor, in December 1997. TRW's contract totals $ 6.3 billion.
The first remanufactured Minuteman III missile--with new guidance and propulsion systems--was launched successfully from Vandenberg AFB to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Pacific Ocean on November 13, 1999. There were four test launches of remanufactured Minuteman III missiles in 2000. One test, conducted on June 9, involved a missile equipped with three unarmed reentry vehicles, which traveled approximately 4,200 miles in about 30 minutes before hitting a target at the Kwajalein range.
The MX missile carries the W87 warhead. Under START II, all operational MX missiles, which are housed at F. E. Warren AFB in Wyoming, are to be deactivated by 2007. Two of the 16 missiles slated for deactivation this year were "destroyed" in January. The United States regards an MX as destroyed if the top stage is dismantled; it reserves the right to use the rest of the missile as a launch vehicle for "satellites or other things." Russia argues that the entire missile must be destroyed.
Despite their planned deactivation, MXs continue to be flight tested under the Force Development and Evaluation Program. On March 8, 2000, an MX was randomly selected from the operational missile force and launched from Vandenberg. MX missiles can carry as many as 10 warheads each, but test launches normally involve only six reentry vehicles. A program is under way to extend the service life of the W87 by 40 years, presumably for use on Trident II missiles (see "Nuclear Notebook," May/June 2000).
Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). Eighteen Ohio-class submarines constitute the current ballistic missile fleet. All Trident I submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMS) are expected to be replaced with longer-range and more accurate Trident II D5s by 2006.
Of the eight subs homeported at Bangor, Washington, the four oldest--the Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Georgia--will be removed from nuclear duty by 2003. The remaining four will be modernized to carry the D5. The first one, the Alaska, arrived at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for overhaul and conversion in April 2000. Beginning in 2002, three submarines will be shifted from Kings Bay, Georgia, to Bangor to balance the 14-sub fleet.
To comply with START II, the navy will have to reduce the number of warheads on each missile or retire additional subs--or both. Under the current timetable, SLBMs will be allowed to carry no more than 2,160 warheads by the end of 2004, and no more than 1,750 by the end of 2007. If a START III is negotiated with limits of 2,000-2,500 deployed strategic warheads, the navy's portion would likely account for approximately half. That would mean a fleet reduction to 10 to 12 submarines, depending on the number of warheads per missile.
Although no new missile submarine class is currently planned, the navy hopes to deploy a new class by 2025. To meet that deadline, the navy has called for funding to begin by 2014. In the meantime, the service life of the Ohio-class subs has been extended from 30 to 42 years.
Last October, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $ 500 million contract to produce 12 Trident II D5 missiles between 2001 and 2003. As of December 1999, the navy had purchased 372 Trident IIs, but because the 1994 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) called for backfitting four Trident I-equipped SSBNs with Trident IIs, the total number of missiles to be procured increased from 390 to 453, raising production costs by $ 2.2 billion. Twenty-eight additional missiles were acquired for research and development. The total cost of the Trident II program is $ 27.2 billion, or $ 60 million per missile.
The Trident II D5 test program has been extraordinarily successful: Of the 112 D5 flight tests since 1987, only five have failed, and since December 1989 the program has recorded 90 consecutive successful launches, making the Trident II the most reliable strategic nuclear missile ever.
Originally scheduled to begin retiring in 2019, the Trident II is being upgraded to extend its service life. The upgraded missile, which is considered a "variant" of the existing D5, rather than a new missile, will be designated the "D5A." Funding is expected to begin in 2005, purchase of motors is planned for 2010-2012, and production is expected to start in 2015. Approximately 300 Trident II D5A missiles are planned, enough to arm 10 submarines.
Lockheed Martin's Missile and Space Operations has manufactured more than 5,000 Mk-4 reentry body assembly kits for the U.S. and British navies since 1976. To ensure that the W76/Mk-4 reentry body can support SSBN operations until 2040, a service life extension program is planned through 2020.
The Mk-5 carries the W88, the most advanced warhead in the U.S. arsenal. Production of the W88 was halted in 1989, after approximately 400 warheads had been produced, when the Rocky Flats Plant was forced to close for safety and environmental reasons.
President George Bush announced in February 1992 that no more W88s would be built. In 1999, however, small-scale production of plutonium cores (pits) for the W88 was resumed at the TA55 facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory to replenish pits destroyed in reliability testing. A total of four "development pits" had been fabricated by February 2000. Under current plans, TA55 is expected to produce 20 pits per year beginning in 2007, with an eventual goal of 50 pits per year. Full-scale pit production for the W88 is scheduled to begin in 2001. Production of new W87 pits will begin after the W88 program is completed.
Bombers. The B-52H is scheduled to remain in operation until 2044. In addition to front-line air force personnel, in late 1997 the Pentagon approved certification of full-time personnel from the air force reserve for support of nuclear war plans.
Air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMS) are equipped with the W80i warhead. Although only about 400 ALCMS are deployed, hundreds more are held in reserve. According to the air force, there are a total of 1,142 ALCMS in the inventory, a reduction of 251 since March 1997. This reduction is a result of the conversion of some ALCMS tO conventional roles. (Two hundred ALCMS are also kept in long-term storage.)
The advanced cruise missile (ACM) is also equipped with the W80-1 warhead. Originally, the Pentagon planned to produce 1,461 ALCMs, but in January 1992 it announced that production would stop at 640 missiles.
Programs are under way to extend the service lives of both the ACM and the ALCMS until 2030.
Cruise missiles are test fired from B-52H aircraft from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana and the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB in North Dakota. About six tests are conducted each year at the Utah Test and Training Range and the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada.
The B-2 bomber, the first of which was delivered to the 509th Bombardment Wing at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, on December 17, 1993, is scheduled to be replaced around 2040. A follow-on bomber program was begun in 1998.
The B-2 is configured to carry various combinations of nuclear and conventional munitions. Its nuclear weapons include the B61-7, B61-11, and B83. The B-2 is designated the "only" carrier of the new B61-11 earth-penetrating nuclear bomb, introduced in November 1997. B-2s can carry either B83 or B61 bombs, but not both at the same time.
The B-1B is not included in the table because it has been converted to a conventional-only platform. The aircraft was officially removed from the Single Integrated Operational Plan on October 1, 1997. However, to comply with the defense secretary's "Defense Planning Guidance for 1999-2002," the air force maintains a "Nuclear Rerole Plan" for the B-1B should they be needed for nuclear war-fighting. B-1B aircraft do not undergo nuclear surety inspections and cannot participate in nuclear exercises. START II allows for a one-time nuclear re-arming of the conventional B-1B fleet, in which case a 16-warhead "weapons load" would be accredited. Of the original 100 B-1Bs, 93 remain. The B-1B is scheduled to be replaced in 2038.
Non-strategic forces. Although the number of non-strategic nuclear weapons has declined dramatically since the Cold War, a 1998 Pentagon study concluded that the numbers of tactical weapons should not be significantly reduced because of Russia's large stockpile of such weapons and its declared dependence on them.
As part of an overall consolidation of nuclear weapons facilities, the navy's Tomahawk cruise missiles (with W80-0 warheads) are now stored at Kings Bay, Georgia.
The NPR mandated that surface vessels no longer be equipped to carry nuclear-armed Tomahawks. However, the option was retained to redeploy the missiles on attack submarines (SSNs). While most U.S. attack subs had some nuclear capability during the Cold War, today most SSNs do not have a nuclear mission. In the Pacific Fleet, less than half of the attack subs undergo regular nuclear certification. Tomahawk operations are included in Strategic Command's (Stratcom) annual Global Guardian nuclear exercises.
An estimated 150 B61 tactical bombs are deployed at 10 air bases in seven European countries for use on NATO planes. The Weapons Storage and Security System used to store the nuclear bombs at these locations was installed between 1990 and 1998. Current programming calls for modernizing these facilities before 2005 to maintain the system through the fall of 2018.
A supply of B61s is stored at air bases in Nevada and New Mexico for the F-16A/B/C/D Fighting Falcon, F-15E Strike Eagle, and F-117A Nighthawk. Although the F-117A is considered nuclear capable, it is maintained at a lower level of nuclear readiness than the other aircraft. All F-15, F-16, and F-117A aircraft are expected to be replaced by the F22 and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) over the next decade or so. The F-22 will not have a nuclear capability, but the air force plans to make some JSFs nuclear capable.
In response to Presidential Decision Directive 60, signed by President Bill Clinton in November 1997, the nuclear readiness posture of U.S.-based dual-capable aircraft was reduced. Nevertheless, all dual-capable craft are maintained for worldwide deployment "in any theater," and fighter-bombers are routinely included in Stratcom's Global Guardian exercises.
Stockpile. In addition to the active stockpile, an "inactive stockpile" (or "hedge") was created in early 1990 to provide extra warheads for reconstitution of part of the force in case arms control expectations failed to materialize. Also stored in the inactive stockpile are warheads used for quality assurance and reliability testing.
As arms control agreements have reduced the active stockpile, the inactive stockpile--which is not covered in the agreements--has grown significantly, with the total stockpile in the 10,000 range. Most weapons removed from active status under START I will be placed in the inactive stockpile to meet the "lead and hedge" requirements contained in the NPR. As a result, although only about 5 percent of the total stockpile was in the inactive category before START I, under START II the inactive stockpile could increase to 50 percent or more.
Nuclear Notebook is prepared by Robert S. Norris and William M. Arkin of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Hans M. Kristensen of the Nautilus Institute, and Joshua Handler. Inquiries should be directed to NRDC, 1200 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 20005; 202-289-6868.
IAC-CREATE-DATE: March 29, 2001
LOAD-DATE: March 30, 2001
February 27, 2002, Wednesday SUNRISE EDITION
Copyright
2002 The
Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha World Herald (Nebraska)
911 war games wargames