In the US 2023 military budget, funding for the SLCM-N (Sea-Launched Cruise Missile – Nuclear) program was curtailed. This is a modernized version of the famous Tomahawk missile with a nuclear warhead for submarines and surface ships. Officially, the Pentagon attributed this to “the declining role of nuclear weapons in US defense strategy.”
Doctor of Military Sciences Konstantin Sivkov, in an interview with socialbites.ca, said that the real reason, in his opinion, was the inability of Washington to produce new nuclear warheads, for which the SLCM-N program lost its meaning.
“The reason for the cancellation is that the US has big problems with nuclear weapons production. This was a result of the fact that there was no opportunity to enrich uranium in the United States. Here, North Korea can enrich uranium, Iran can enrich uranium, but the United States does not have a uranium enrichment industry and does not have a scientific uranium enrichment school,” explained Sivkov.
According to him, the US enrichment industry was abolished due to the 1993 signing of the HEU-LEU Agreement (highly enriched uranium – low enriched uranium), also called the Gor-Chernomyrdin agreement, which provided supplies to the United States. Soviet weapons-grade uranium created after the start of disarmament was “diluted” from 90% to 4-5% of the isotope 235.
This concentration made it possible to use it as fuel for nuclear power plants, and former USSR republics such as Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan became nuclear-free countries, reducing the risk of illegal procurement of nuclear weapons. As a result, American enterprises for the separation of uranium isotopes did not receive demand and were closed.
“As a result, after 30 years the United States has completely lost its uranium enrichment technologies – not a trace remains. Staffs, science and technical schools were completely destroyed. Even if they buy all this from one place, it will take a lot of time to distribute the production. And in these conditions, of course, they have no chance to deploy new warheads, ”Sivkov emphasized.
In 2015, the American company Centrus Energy Corp unsuccessfully tried to master the technology of uranium enrichment for nuclear energy needs and the military-industrial complex using gas centrifuges and build a plant in Ohio, but a year later the project was closed and the equipment was dismantled.
Dmitry Stefanovich, a researcher at the IMEMO RAS Center for International Security, reminded that plutonium cores are necessary for the production of nuclear weapons. (plutonium is obtained from an isotope of uranium. – “socialbites.ca”), the United States was supposed to start producing 80 units per year, but still could not establish production.
“There was a goal of reaching 80 cores per year in relatively recent years, but so far nothing has come of it – for technical reasons, perhaps for budgetary reasons. It is a matter of financing and construction of production facilities,” he said.
At the same time, he believes the real reason for the cancellation of the SLCM-N program lies in “the US Navy’s reluctance to engage in nuclear weapons.”
“The US Navy has absolutely no need for nuclear cruise missiles. Operating nuclear weapons is a complex thing that requires some training. In addition, it is forbidden to enter many ports of the world with nuclear weapons on board, which significantly limits the capabilities of the fleet. In order to place several nuclear missiles on universal launchers, it is necessary to remove from there the same number of more popular conventional missiles – for example, anti-submarine missiles. In addition, the Navy was already burdened with uncharacteristic missile defense tasks. If we add nuclear deterrence here, this will require an increase in the number of warships on duty, ”Stefanovich explained.
He noted that a certain role in the decision to close the SLCM-N program could also be played by the opinion of the American expert community that the deployment of nuclear Tomahawks will lead to an escalation of relations with Russia and China. denuclearize all Tomahawks.
“When there is a nuclear and non-nuclear version based on the same weapon, this is the so-called “threat of uncertainty.” A potential enemy immediately starts thinking about the worst-case scenario by default.”
expert explained.
At the same time, he pointed out that the United States should not show weakness in front of Russia and China, because countries in the Asia-Pacific region can try if they doubt the US Navy’s ability to fend off threats from China. to obtain their own nuclear weapons