
Ok, I am annoyed.
I am writing a paper about the Conventional Trident Modification (CTM) program—an effort to replace the nuclear warheads on two Trident D5 missiles on each of the nation’s 12 SSBNs with a conventional payload.
I think this is a mildly pointless idea. I admire General Cartwright’s determination to equip his command with nonnuclear forces as part of an inevitable reduction of our reliance on nuclear weapons and a sincere desire to do something useful. It just isn’t clear to me that CTM is the way toward that future.
But, hey, the program is cheap—around 500 million bucks. As mildly pointless programs go, this is a bargain. (By comparison, the Air Force’s Conventional Strike Missile screams “schedule delays” and “cost overruns.”)
I do worry that the Russians might misinterpret a CTM launch, but General Cartwright has made lots of noise about improving data exchange with the Russians to manage the risk. If Cartwright can get the Joint Data Exchange Center up-and-running, I’d be willing to have the Treasury cut the man a check for $500 million directly. He can spend the cash on CTM, hookers, blow, Sands of Iwo Jima DVDs, whatever. Hell, every dollar that Cartwright spends is one that DARPA can’t waste on chembots, hafnium bombs or the other crazy ideas they come up with while high.
Anyway, the point. I wanted to check in on the cost estimates and program of work for CTM in the 2008 President’s Budget Request (PBR) to illustrate that the program has the twin virtues of being inexpensive and relatively easy to implement.
Last year (FY2007 PBR), the President asked for $127 million for the Conventional Trident Modification (CTM) program. Congress put the program on hold and cut the budget, pending a National Academies Study.
The Descriptive Summary for PE 0604327N Hard and Deeply Buried Defeat Systems, in the FY07 President’s Budget Request, contained the best factual information about the CTM program. The descriptive summary, also known as an R2, included the handy little chart (above) showing program milestones and the future funding breakdowns (below).
| Account |
FY 2005 |
FY 2006 |
FY 2007 |
FY 2008 |
Total |
| RDTE/BA4/PE 0604327N/9611 |
9.6 |
0.0 |
77.0 |
69.0 |
155.6 |
| WPN/BA1/1250/PE 0101228N |
38.0 |
146.0 |
112.0 |
31.0 |
327.0 |
| OPN/BA4/5358/PE 0101221N |
12.0 |
10.0 |
6.0 |
2.0 |
30.0 |
Source: PE 0604327N Hard and Deeply Buried Defeat Systems
Helpful, huh? You can see they thought they could crank this puppy out in two years. So, I decided to get the most recent budget data for FY2008.
DOD didn’t release a descriptive summary for PE 0604327N Hard and Deeply Buried Defeat Systems this year. The information isn’t classified—the R1 clearly requests $126.4 million for PE 0604327N Hard and Deeply Buried Target Defeat System. Moreover, the Chief of Naval Operations stated that ”$175 million is included in the FY 2008 request” for CTM. (Subtracting the $100 million in the two procurement accounts, that leaves about $75 million in PE 0604327N is for Conventional Trident.)
So, why refuse to release the descriptive summary? There must be a story here.
Late Update Okay, the PE was released here but not here. I could swear I looked in both places. Weird. Thanks, Robot Economist.

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