‘Nine of ten visiting ships nuclear-capable’

Press, 10 January 1986, Page 4

‘Nine of ten visiting ships nuclear-capable’

PA Wellington Only one of the 10 United States warships that visited New Zealand during the term of the last Labour Government was not nuclear-capable, according to the External Intelligence Bureau.

A bureau report called “Nuclear Capabilities of Ships, Submarines and Aircraft” was given to the Government late last year. New Zealand’s Ambassador to the United States, the former Labour leader and Prime Minister, Sir Wallace Rowling, has claimed several times that Labour had successfully had a similar ban on ships with nuclear

weapons, or propulsion, between 1973 and 1975.

Of the 10 ships that visited during that time, three were destroyers, and the rest frigates. The only one not nuclear-capable was the frigate U.S.S. McMorris, the report said. The E. 1.8. report notes that the retrospective assessment of whether a ship was nuclear capable was based on “the typical weapons fit for that class at about that time.” “The weapons systems concerned, mainly A.S.R.O.C. and Terrier, are conventional warhead weapons, however, with a nuclear warhead option, and

the presence of the system in New Zealand ports did not per se indicate the presence of nuclear weapons.” The report also contains an assessment of all the United States ships and submarines that have visited New Zealand since 1960. Since then, exactly 150 United States ships have visited. Of these,. 96 were considered nuclear-capable by the E. 1.8. Between 1960 and 1972, 99 ships visited, and the E. 1.8. thinks 52 were nuclear-cap-able. Between 1976 and mid--1984, 41 ships visited, and 35 were considered nuclearcapable.

All United States submarines to have visited New Zealand have been attack craft, while strategic ballistic missile submarines have never visited New Zealand “nor are they likely to request to do so.” The report also covers in considerable detail the probability of United States aircraft carrying nuclear weapons while in New Zealand.

Three reasons, the report states, limit this likelihood — the possibility of accidents, the need for tight security on weapons, and New Zealand’s distance from any worth-while target.