The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. (E.T.)
The United States, Russia and China all have chosen to deploy long-range nuclear missiles in reinforced underground silos; the first country to adopt this deployment option was the United States, over 60 years ago. It has long been assumed that only nuclear weapons might reliably destroy such silo-based missiles. This presentation will outline a framework to assess the vulnerability of silo-based missiles to attack by modern conventional weapons based on comparing ground motions induced by nuclear surface bursts and earth-penetrating conventional explosions. It will suggest that U.S. long-range air- and sea- based precision conventional cruise missiles now may be lethal against strategic missile silos and explore some implications of long-range conventional weapons being able to substitute for the silo targeting capability of nuclear weapons.
About the speaker: Ryan Snyder is a physicist with the National Security Division of the United States Congressional Budget Office. He has previously held research positions with the Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security, the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH) at the University of Hamburg, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva, and the Arms Control Association, Washington DC.
The views expressed here will not necessarily reflect those of the United States Congressional Budget Office.