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.

A top U.S. military official last week branded as "facetious" congressional concerns that the launch of a proposed long-range conventional missile might be mistaken for a nuclear salvo.

The U.S. Defense Department is leaving open the possibility of developing a conventional long-range missile for deployment on submarines, despite stern congressional warnings against fielding anything that might be mistaken for a nuclear weapon during launch.

An independent panel recently provided a boost to a coolly received Pentagon initiative that would convert some long-range, submarine-launched ballistic missiles to deliver conventional warheads instead of nuclear ones.

The United States has made little progress in developing a conventional "prompt global strike" capability, leaving the military few options short of a nuclear attack in certain scenarios, according to the head of U.S. Strategic Command.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee eliminated funding for a Bush administration plan to modify submarines carrying nuclear Trident ballistic missiles to deploy conventionally armed Tridents, judging it a potentially "provocative" capability.

The authors argue that a controversial plan to deploy conventionally-armed ICBMs on submarines would erode the global committment to reducing the proliferation of ballistic missiles.

The authors, two former U.S. Secretaries of Defense, argue that the U.S. needs prompt global strike capability to provide maximum flexibility for dealing with the threat of global terrorism. They wrote the article in support of a Pentagon proposal to replace the nuclear warheads on two of the Trident D5 missiles on every deployed strategic submarine with a new type of warhead incorporating four highly accurate, independently targetable, nonnuclear reentry bodies.