{"id":38871,"date":"2018-11-30T18:53:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T18:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/11\/30\/us-lawmakers-tangle-over-nuclear-arsenal-russia-treaties\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:02:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:02:38","slug":"us-lawmakers-tangle-over-nuclear-arsenal-russia-treaties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/11\/30\/us-lawmakers-tangle-over-nuclear-arsenal-russia-treaties\/","title":{"rendered":"US lawmakers tangle over nuclear arsenal, Russia treaties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Half of all Republican senators are urging President Donald Trump to take heed of Russia\u2019s growing nuclear weapons capability as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty\u2019s expiration date approaches<\/a> \u2014 just one of many partisan salvos this week in Washington\u2019s fight over the nuclear arsenal and its scope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter<\/a> Thursday to Trump led by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz, the 25 senators committed to funding the U.S. nuclear weapons modernization program with an eye toward maintaining \u201ca true balance of nuclear capabilities between the parties to the Treaty.\u201d The lawmakers argue Russia has developed nuclear torpedoes and tactical nuclear weapons, which are not covered by the accord and should be included if the treaty is revised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signed in 2010, the pact limits both U.S. and Russian deployed forces to 1,550 warheads and over 700 delivery systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and bombers, by 2018. The New START Treaty expires in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawmakers argue that because Russia is breaching its arms control commitments \u2014 including the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty<\/a> by developing, producing and deploying a ground-launched cruise missile and launcher \u2014 it\u2019s critical to fund nuclear modernization, including a controversial low-yield warhead, as proposed in Trump\u2019s Nuclear Posture Review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proponents of the low-yield warhead, a version of the Navy\u2019s Trident II D5 ballistic missile, dubbed the W76-2, say the weapon will deter Russia from using its own arsenal of low-yield nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo convince Moscow that there are no possible benefits to limited nuclear escalation, the United States needs to diversify its nuclear delivery system options on the lower levels of the escalatory ladder, including adding submarine-launched missiles and sea-launched cruise missiles with low-yield nuclear warheads,\u201d Kyl wrote Thursday in The Washington Post<\/a>. The piece was co-written with Michael Morell, a former deputy director and twice acting director of the CIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., introduced<\/a> the Stopping Russian Nuclear Aggression Act, which would prevent funding to extend New START until Russia agrees to verifiably reduce its stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons and include its new systems under the treaty. Cotton is on the Senate Armed Services Committee and Cheney is on the House Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheney, Kyl and Morell were among panelists listed at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for Defense News coverage of the 2018 Reagan National Defense Forum.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the flip side of the issue, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., unveiled<\/a> her foreign policy platform Thursday, perhaps ahead of a 2020 presidential run, which calls for no new nuclear weapons, extending New START through 2026 and a no-first-use policy for nuclear weapons. When Trump is undermining arms control agreements, she said, the U.S. \u201cshould not spend over a trillion dollars to modernize our nuclear arsenal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president has threatened Russia with a nuclear arms race, saying we\u2019ll simply outspend our rivals. Boy, is that wrong,\u201d Warren said in remarks at American University. \u201cThe United States has over 4,000 nuclear weapons in our active arsenal, and our conventional military might is overwhelming. Trump\u2019s nuclear arms race does not make us or the world any safer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Russia\u2019s new weapons should be part of extending and renegotiating New START with Moscow, the U.S. will need to give something to get something, said Arms Control Association analyst Kingston Reif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fanciful to think that holding New START hostage will convince Russia to negotiate a more comprehensive arms control agreement that limits Russian tactical nuclear weapons,\u201d Reif said. \u201cIf such a deal can be achieved, it will take years and the United States will need to put things on the table, notably missile defense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Reif\u2019s reckoning, threatening New START actually frees Russia to expand its arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons pointed at the United States after the treaty expires. \u201cIf New START is allowed to expire without a replacement, Russian nuclear forces would be unconstrained, our ability to verify what Russia is doing would be curtailed, and the incentives to engage in costly nuclear competition would be magnified,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t