New nuclear warhead design for US

By Jamie Coomarasamy
BBC
Mar. 02, 2007

The Bush administration has selected the design for America's first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades.

US officials say the warhead will not add to the country's nuclear arsenal, but will replace existing missiles.

Critics, though, argue this sends the wrong signal at a time when the White House is leading efforts to curb Iran and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

The chosen design was developed in a Californian laboratory and is based on a warhead already tested in the 1980s.

That will satisfy the US Congress, which signed off on the idea of a new warhead on the basis that there would not be any fresh missile tests.

Senior US officials, meanwhile, are stressing that this is not the start of a new arms race.

They say the warheads will simply replace older, less reliable ones with a safer version that is due to be operational in five years' time.

But, at a moment when the White House is trying to stop North Korea and Iran from developing their nuclear programmes, some see the decision to press ahead with a new US warhead as sending an unfortunate mixed message.