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U.S. Conventional Prompt Global Strike Issues for 2008 and Beyond (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix H: Cooperative Reduction ofNuclear Ambiguity
Pages 216-218

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From page 216...
... of 1991 limits the United States and Russia each to 6,000 "accountable" strategic nuclear warheads with no more than 4,900 of them delivered by ballistic missiles. Furthermore, START created protocols for inspection to ensure that each missile had no more than its allowable number of nuclear warheads -- a more difficult task than demonstrating that a missile is not carrying even one nuclear warhead.
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From page 217...
... However, a digital imager with volume of a cubic centimeter and coupled with lightweight plastic mirrors and light-emitting diodes could provide the necessary illumination and field for viewing. An alternative approach might be to mount the verification video camera inside the missile shroud, near the mounting fixture of the reentry vehicle, although this would require detailed analysis to show that the video camera would not interfere with flight operations.
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From page 218...
... This fraud could be precluded by the authenticated transmission, 1 minute after the launch-evidence transmission, of a 2-minute record from a hull-mounted accelerometer in the SLBM that would show the characteristic signal of a single missile launch or, alternatively, the signal of two launches. Mitigation of nuclear ambiguity from silo-based missile launch There is vastly more room in a silo than in a submarine missile tube, so the mounting of the video camera is a much simpler task in the former, and there is no inhibition to near-continous transmission of the authenticated picture.
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Key Terms

  • missile launch
  • submarine missile
  • nuclear warhead
  • missile shroud
  • conventionally armed

  • major concern
  • graphic integrating
  • integrating accelerometer
  • armed trident
  • missile tube

  • alternative approach
  • alleviate nuclear
  • cooperative technical
  • complications arise
  • transparent cylinder

  • start created
  • energy agency
  • missile front
  • transmitting encrypted
  • single missile

  • bilateral partners
  • missile launched
  • characteristic signal
  • silicone fluid
  • reduction treaty

  • require detailed
  • geographic location
  • video cameras
  • detailed analysis
  • vehicle delivering


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