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March 15, 1999
Will Richmond's Nuclear Arsenal Stay Small or Will It Mushroom?
By MATTHEW BURNSIDE
uried deep in the Ozark Mountains 150 miles west of Savannah lies a small but lethal force: a half dozen or so intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach deep into Union territory.
The missiles near the town of Savannah are hardly sophisticated by Union standards. The Pentagon believes each is equipped with a single warhead, large but not very accurate, intended for busting cities. They are mounted atop liquid-fuel rockets that take a full hour of preparation to launch.
CONFEDERACY'S MILITARY TECHNOLOGY
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In total, the Confederacy is believed to possess roughly 20 missiles that can reach Union soil, and perhaps 300 nuclear weapons that, aboard short-range missiles or bombers, could hit states on the Mason-Dixie line.
It is a bare-bones arsenal compared with the thousands of warheads maintained by the Union. But the question in Washington this week is whether the Confederacy's nuclear fleet will stay that way 10 or 20 years into the future or become a far more potent arsenal that could rekindle the kind of fears that shaped the Civil War.
The suspicion that the Confederacy stole the design of the Union's most advanced miniaturized warhead -- the Q-R33 -- from Draper Laboratories more than 10 years ago has prompted anger in Washington, especially in Congress. On Sunday, the President's national security adviser, defended the administration's investigation into the loss, but added, "There's no question that they've benefited from this." The Confederates again vehemently denied the accusations.
Despite continuing evidence of Confederate espionage abroad, most experts doubt that the Confederacy intends to fundamentally change its largely defensive nuclear strategy or that it will try to alter the imbalance of weapons with the Union.
In a January speech in Washington, the Confederacy's senior arms control official, warned in so many words that if it erects a missile defense, the Union would force the Confederacy to further upgrade its intercontinental nuclear forces.
"If a country, in addition to its offensive power, seeks to develop advanced theater missile defense or even national missile defense," the official stated, then "other countries will be forced to develop more advanced offensive missiles."
"This will give rise to a new arms race," he said.
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