Wampum

Donald Rumsfeld is pitching a novel idea to Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov -- making it impossible to know if a trident missile launches from one of 14 Ohio class SSBNs is conventionally armed with eight W88 (475 kt) warheads (Mark 5), or eight W76 (100 kt) warheads, or unconventionally armed with an as yet undisclosed munition (or MIRVed munition) equivalent to two, or three, MK84 (2,000) bombs, or half a BLU-82 ("daisy cutter").

Unit costs;
Submarine launched ballistic missile: $29.100,000 (6,000 lb payload)
Submarine launched cruise missile: $500,000 (1,000 lb payload)
Air delivered MK-84 with additional guidance: $25,000 (2,000 lb payload)

If the Red Player can induce the Blue Player to shed strategic assets, and acquire tactical assets that (a) can not be used against, or near, Red Player due to their indistinguishability at launch from strategic assets, and (b) increase the cost to Blue Player to engage tactical targets by three orders of magnitude, that's a win for Red Player.

Of course, where could 3 ton conventional explosive, with or without dense metal and case hardening penetration enhancements, be ballistically delivered without being identified as a strategic risk to Red Player? South America, Antactica, Africa, and of course, North America, but not Europe and Asia.

Its a god-send to Lockhead-Martin, for the Trident Program Life Extension.

It is also a tacit admission that some of the existing SSBN inventory should have been on the BRAC list last year. Here's a prior note: hit or miss.