Trump orders Pentagon to review how quickly it can arm NUKES ready for launch ahead of Russia arms treaty expiring
DONALD Trump has ordered a review how quickly the US can arm its nuclear weapons ahead of an arms treaty with Russia expiring, it was reported.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is due to run out in February and the Russians have said they see little chance of it being extended.
The New START accord was signed in 2010 and limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads thatand the United States can deploy.
The President has asked for an assessment of how quickly it could pull nuclear weapons out of storage and load them onto bombers and submarines,
The move stems from the view held by the US negotiators is that Russia is dragging out the talks in the hope thatwins the presidential election, a person familiar with the discussions said.
The Democratic candidate has pledged to extend New START under terms Moscow believes will be more favorable terms than the Trump administration is offering
“It’s a clear signal that the costs for not negotiating before the election are going to go up,” said the insider.
The move was aimed at “trying to create an incentive, and it’s a real incentive, for the Russians to sit down and actually negotiate”.
The request for the assessment came in the last two weeks from a group of officials at the National Security Council and State, Defense and Energy departments.
They are supporting Ambassador Marshall Billingslea in negotiations with Moscow to try to replace New START.
Billingslea has publicly raised the possibility of putting more weapons on bombers and submarines if New START lapses.
He has said that a successor to New START must be must include China, terms that Russia has rejected.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said last week: "We have not taken and do not intend to take any steps to bring China into these talks, something we have told our American colleagues on multiple occasions,"
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Failure to extend New START would remove the main pillar maintaining the balance of nuclear arms between the two countries, adding yet another element of tension to their already fraught relationship.
The Trump administration’s move to ready nukes has attracted criticism with one former Republican arms control official branding it “very stupid”.
“It makes absolutely no sense to threaten to upload. It becomes a valid leveraging point only if the other side can’t do it. The Russians can do it, too,” said the official.