Why the United States should negotiate a ban on naval tactical nuclear weapons
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Authors
Malloy, Todd Webster
Subjects
Naval arms control
Naval tactical nuclear weapons
Naval tactical nuclear weapons
Advisors
Stockton, Paul
Date of Issue
1991-12
Date
December 1991
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
The naval tactical nuclear weapons that the US Navy has in storage neither provide adequate deterrence nor increased warfighting capability. If the US and the USSR eliminated these weapons the US Navy would be in a more dominant position compared to the Soviets. With both the US and USSR announcing unilateral removal of their tactical nuclear weapons from naval units, while at the same time maintaining them in storage, the US has tacitly agreed to a ban on those weapons without making any provisions for verifying Soviet compliance. This is not a good situation, all the drawbacks associated with these weapons remain, and none of the benefits of removing them from the inventory have been realized. As long as tactical nuclear weapons still exist, the costs for maintaining, storing, securing and training on these weapons will continue to be incurred. Moreover, in the present situation of unverified agreement, the Soviets still have access to non-strategic naval nuclear weapons. There is no assurance that some of those weapons will not find their way aboard a Soviet warship during unsettled times in the USSR. Those issues can be resolved if the US seeks a mutually verifiable treaty with the USSR completely banning naval tactical nuclear weapons.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
National Security Affairs (NSA)
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
93 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.