Pentagon leaders want funding for the initiative to replace the nuclear warheads on Trident missiles with conventional warheads. Trident missiles are carried in Ohio-class submarines. The armaments would give additional options for quickly attacking a target that threatens national security, defense officials have argued.

However, the recently released report that accompanies the Senate Appropriations Committee's version of the FY-07 defense-spending bill argues that Congress cannot commit funding to the program before the administration resolves important issues and examines alternatives.

“The Committee believes that fundamental issues about the use of this weapon must be addressed prior to investing in this effort,” states the report. “Furthermore, it is not clear that other potentially less provocative alternatives, such as land and air-based options, have been considered.”

The FY-07 budget request asks for $127 million for the program, which is broken down into $77 million for research and development and $50 million for additional procurement. Senate appropriators recommended withholding all of this money.

Instead, the committee proposed allocating $5 million for the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a feasibility study on the program. The committee's report states that the study should analyze the mission requirement and, where appropriate, recommend alternatives that meet the prompt global strike mission in the near-term (one to two years), the mid-term (three to five years) and the long-term.

The report sets March 15, 2007, as the due date for the study.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the bill July 20. The full Senate has yet to approve the bill.

Aaron Saunders, spokesman for Ted Stevens (R-AK), the chair of the panel's defense subcommittee, said Stevens previously hoped the full Senate would take up the bill before the August break, but Stevens now anticipates that debate will not occur until September, Saunders said.

If the full Senate accepts the committee's recommendations, the issue of CTR program funding would have to come to a resolution in conference committee. House appropriators also decreased funds for the program, but not as drastically as the Senate. The House committee recommended that $30 million remain in the budget for CTR program research and development.

Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, has pushed to deploy the conventional Trident missile by 2009 and have full operational capability by 2011, according to Inside the Pentagon.

Navy Secretary Donald Winter argued for the advantages of the program in a June 8 speech.

“A conventional ballistic missile will provide the president with additional, timely, long-range strike options,” he said. “Given the importance of real-time intelligence in the global war on terror, this capability would provide us with a powerful new weapon in our warfighting arsenal.”

Rear Adm. Stephen Johnson, the Navy's director for strategic systems programs, told ITN in June that the Pentagon intended to convert 24 missiles on 12 submarines.

The program has met resistance from several lawmakers. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), in a June interview with ITN , said that firing non-nuclear missiles from ships that traditionally carry nuclear missiles may accidentally scare other nations into retaliating against the United States. He also expressed concern about the high cost of the program.