WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- The Navy is considering basing a Trident submarine armed with conventional cruise missiles at the island of Guam, part of an effort to expand the Navy's base in the Pacific and increase its arsenal of precision weapons, said Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim at a breakfast meeting with reporters.
The just released Quadrennial Defense Review calls for the Navy to "homeport" additional guided cruise missile submarines and three to four surface ships in the Western Pacific in order to speed U.S. military response to crises in that region.
Currently only one carrier battle group is "forward deployed" in Japan.
The Navy wants to convert four Trident submarines to carry Tomahawk cruise missiles in its missile tubes rather than nuclear missiles; it received funding to convert one such submarine from Congress in 2002.
"It's not a bad capability to have if you're thinking there is going to be a long war on terrorism," Zakheim said, pointing out that the submarines can sneak up on enemy territory and launch cruise missile attacks without warning.
The conversion program has implications for arms control treaties, however. If the submarines are converted to carrying cruise missiles without destroying the old nuclear launchers, under the START II arms control agreement, Russia will still consider those submarines nuclear capable, and would "count" those tubes against the total nuclear arsenal allowed. If the submarines are hauled out of the water and completely retrofitted with new launching tubes, the Trident would not count toward the nuclear total, but it would cost the Defense Department far more than the roughly $2 billion estimated by the Navy.
The Navy is considering removing the D-5 nuclear missiles from the USS Henry M. Jackson, the USS Alabama, and the USS Alaska, leaving 14 Tridents nuclear capable.
The converted Trident could fire 154 Tomahawks in six minutes.
