The U.S. Defense Department plans to develop a new conventional ballistic missile for fielding on attack submarines, according to major budget decisions announced on Thursday at the Pentagon.

The Outer Space Treaty, an international space treaty created at the height of the Cold War, likely makes it very difficult for any party to claim rights to the lunar water scientists now say exists. That 1967 treaty, ratified by the U.S., China, India and 95 other countries, in effect prevents any nation from owning the moon.

With an eye toward making good on U.S. President Barack Obama's nearly year-old pledge to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security, some of his top lieutenants have begun asserting that technological advances now allow greater reliance on conventional arms for strategic deterrence.

As the White House pushes for cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the Pentagon is developing a weapon to help fill the gap: missiles armed with conventional warheads that could strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour.

A top U.S. combatant commander would like to see rapid-strike, long-range conventional weapons fielded by 2015, according to military officials.

U.S. Air Force leaders say nuclear weapons will be the central focus of a new Global Strike Command, but the service faces growing questions about how the strike headquarters will juggle its additional responsibilities in training and providing forces for conventional combat operation.

Two Russian security experts yesterday suggested that U.S. plans to develop fast-flying, long-range conventional weapons might pose a snag for nuclear arms negotiations between Moscow and Washington.

A National Research Council blue-ribbon panel of defense experts is recommending development and testing of a conventional warhead for submarine-launched intercontinental Trident missiles to give the president an alternative to using nuclear weapons for a prompt strike anywhere in the world.

An independent panel on Friday advised that the U.S. Navy develop and field a conventional version of its nuclear-armed Trident D-5 missile, a Defense Department initiative that has received scant support thus far from a skeptical Congress.

The U.S. Navy is floating the idea of developing a new ballistic missile for global attack operations that could also be used as an interceptor in the nation's evolving strategic missile defense system.