Naval arms control: Tons of options?

Arms reductions have reached the US Navy, the most arms control averse of the US services, with budget-driven cuts in numbers of ships and personnel, and President Bush's unilateral withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's rejoinder not only replicated the Bush initiative for naval weapons, but also called for the destruction of all those weapons, many of which would simply be placed in secure storage ashore under Bush's approach. Can formal, negotiated naval arms control agreements be far behind Post-war history suggests that such naval arms agreements will remain out of reach. But post-war history has been confounded repeatedly by the events of the past three years. There are, in fact, negotiated naval limits that would enhance the predictability of US-Soviet military relations, and smooth the path of the naval retrenchment already underway on both sides. The Bush-Gorbachev reciprocal withdrawals of naval tactical nuclear arms deal with the most urgent and dangerous issue for naval arms control, improve the US Navy's survivability by drastically reducing the nuclear threat, and improve its flexibility by eliminating the security and political issues associated with carrying nuclear arms. It would be highly desirable, however, to formalize and verify these withdrawals, placingmore » withdrawn weapons under jointly monitored, secure control, to preserve options for further cuts in the future.« less