The possibility of an unauthorized launch of Soviet short-range nuclear weapons is a "real threat" to regional security, despite elaborate anti-launch controls, a leading Soviet arms expert says.
Gennadi A. Pavlov, who served for 30 years with the military command that operates all land-based Soviet nuclear weapons, told a Senate panel Tuesday he saw almost no chance of an illicit launch of long-range, or strategic, Soviet weapons.But he said the risk was higher for short-range, or tactical, nuclear weapons, mainly because the military units that operate those weapons are more autonomous than their counterparts in charge of the strategic nuclear arsenal.
"There is a possibility of an unauthorized use of these nuclear weapons," Pavlov told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on European affairs.
He said the tactical weapons "indeed pose a real threat to security," although they don't threaten the United States because they can't reach U.S. soil. He urged that all American and Soviet tactical nuclear arms be eliminated.
The question of who controls the Soviet nuclear force has become an issue with the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the increased independence of the Soviet states.