Rebuffed by Congress last year over a proposal to convert submarine-based nuclear ballistic missiles into conventional strike platforms, the U.S. Air Force now is pushing for a so-called Conventional Strike Missile (CSM) that would be based on land and follow a different flight path than intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), an officer said April 25.

The CSM is eyed for rollout by about 2014, according to Maj. Gregory Jones, chief of the spacelift requirements branch. The program would use existing commercial or excess military rocket motors for a medium-lift ballistic missile that deploys a hypersonic glide warhead.

It could be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. - where foreign inspectors could visit for verification - and the resulting coastal- and land-based launch, as well as a lower-flying trajectory, would distinguish the CSM from other ICBMs, Jones told the Precision Strike Association's annual program review in Springfield, Va.

Jones said so far lawmakers seem receptive to the CSM - a far cry from their opposition to the Conventional Trident Missile (CTM). Still, missile defense supporters in Congress said last month they would try to persuade legislators to let CTM go forward (DAILY, March 23, 30). The CSM was an interim solution pitched last year between the CTM and a new long-range bomber.

Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, head of Strategic Command, has maintained his call for quick prompt global strike (PGS) solutions on Capitol Hill, and he has gently criticized lawmakers for not moving forward. "We have debated, but made little gain, in filling a gap in our prompt global strike capability," he told the House Armed Services Committee last month.

Currently, some conventional global strike forces are capable of reducing or eliminating threats within one or two days, the general testified. "But if the threat is sudden or fleeting our only existing prompt global strike capability employs nuclear ballistic missile systems," he said, likening the president's choice of their use as possibly "no choice at all."

Both Jones and Cartwright said the CSM also could employ in-flight maneuvering technology, which Jones noted could help in avoiding countries with flyover issues.

Besides the CSM, Cartwright said Army Space and Missile Defense Command is "actively" working thermal protection and management solutions that can be effectively used across the range of potential advanced precision global strike solutions.

Emerging threat

Regardless, Washington must pick up the pace because the global threat is emerging, he said.

"Unfortunately, the threat we face is more virulent and arrived at our shores earlier than expected. Because the threat has outpaced our search for solutions, we have examined many plausible alternatives and believe a near-term solution to deploy a precision global strike missile within two years of funding is essential to adequately defend the nation offshore," Cartwright said.

This near-term capability should be part of a larger strategy to explore, test and field other land, sea, or air-launched alternatives to produce effective mid- (2013-2020) and long-term (2020 and beyond) solutions, he said.