Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 9, 1990 TAG: 9006090308
SECTION: MISCELLANEOUS PAGE: ????????????????? EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The directors of three U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories called for the withdrawal of the weapons two weeks ago during congressional testimony. They suggested there was a remote possibility the weapons could leak plutonium in an accident.
The missiles are known as the Short-Range Attack Missile-A, or SRAM-As, and are carried aboard the nation's 372 deployed B-52, B-1B and FB-111 bombers. The Air Force has said that 1,500 of the weapons were produced between 1971 and 1975, but the current number deployed is classified.
In a statement issued at the Pentagon, Cheney said that the weapons would not be placed on board bombers on "ground alert."
Those are the nation's warplanes that are loaded with weapons, fueled, and ready to fly within minutes. The number of aircraft on such alert is classified.
Cheney's statement said the weapons would be removed from the bombers pending the outcome of the safety studies being conducted by the Air Force and the Energy Department, whose labs and factories are responsible for producing the nation's nuclear weapons.
Cheney "signed the order today as a precaution," the statement said.
He took the step after discussions with Energy Secretary James Watkins, the directors of the three laboratories and receiving "additional information" about the SRAM-A, the statement said. It did not elaborate on what that information might have been.
The SRAM-A is not the only nuclear weapon carried by bombers. The planes also carry a complement of longer-range nuclear missiles and free-fall bombs. A new model short-range missile designated SRAM-2 is under development for deployment in 1993.
The 14-foot-long SRAM-A is an air-to-surface missile armed with the W-69 nuclear warhead with an estimated explosive yield equivalent to 170,000 tons of TNT, 11 to 13 times the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. Some writers have suggested that it would be used against targets that threatened the bombers themselves, such as radar stations, fighter bases and anti-aircraft missile sites, up to 100 miles away.
The safety of the missile warhead was reviewed in 1989, and because of that review, some procedures for handling the weapons were modified for safety reasons.
"The laboratories have initiated new analyses. Until those analyses are complete, I believe it is prudent to take this action," the statement quoted Cheney as saying.
The statement said Cheney wanted to emphasize that "the SRAM-A poses no safety hazards to the public."
Cheney's order means that while those planes will remain on alert, they will not be loaded with the SRAM-A nuclear weapons.
It also said that the reports by the Air Force and the Energy Department on the safety of the weapon are due this summer.
by CNB