By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S.&nbsp;officials&nbsp;want&nbsp;to&nbsp;tinker&nbsp;with the&nbsp;mix&nbsp;of&nbsp;chemicals&nbsp;fueling&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;and&nbsp;rockets&nbsp;to&nbsp;gain&nbsp;an&nbsp;advantage&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Pacific&nbsp;by&nbsp;increasing&nbsp;the&nbsp;range&nbsp;of&nbsp;its&nbsp;frontline&nbsp;munitions&nbsp;so&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;forces&nbsp;can&nbsp;operate&nbsp;farther&nbsp;away&nbsp;from&nbsp;China.
The Pentagon&nbsp;and&nbsp;Congress are looking at a retrofit that could extend&nbsp;ranges for&nbsp;some current weapons as much as 20% by using more powerful propellants&nbsp;and&nbsp;lighter warheads, two congressional aides&nbsp;and&nbsp;two&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;officials&nbsp;said who spoke to Reuters under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Last week, the Senate revealed bill language earmarking at least $13 million to plan, expand&nbsp;and&nbsp;manufacture chemical compounds that&nbsp;can&nbsp;be used to propel&nbsp;missiles, or replace the explosive material in warheads, known as "energetics".
Although a fraction of the $886 billion defense bill making&nbsp;its&nbsp;way through Congress, the funding starts a process that could ultimately lead to billions of dollars of new spending on&nbsp;munitions.
The Democrat-controlled Senate&nbsp;and&nbsp;Republican-held House of Representatives still need to negotiate final funding levels for the concept, but there is general agreement on the bipartisan effort to deter&nbsp;China.
The "distance in the Indo-Pacific&nbsp;and&nbsp;sheer size of (China's) Navy means the&nbsp;U.S. needs more ship-killing&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;that&nbsp;can&nbsp;reach distant targets," Representative Mike Gallagher told Reuters.&nbsp;China&nbsp;views the&nbsp;U.S. in the&nbsp;Pacific&nbsp;as a threat, ramping up&nbsp;its&nbsp;own military presence in response.
"Unfortunately, the Pentagon has grown complacent using 1940s-era energetics&nbsp;and&nbsp;neglected advanced energetics like CL-20 that are necessary to&nbsp;increasing&nbsp;the&nbsp;range&nbsp;and&nbsp;lethality of our force. Every foot&nbsp;farther&nbsp;a missile&nbsp;can&nbsp;travel is a foot&nbsp;farther&nbsp;an American&nbsp;service member is&nbsp;from&nbsp;danger."
CL-20 PROGRAM
Pending final approval in Congress, the bill would set in motion a Pentagon program to try to add more&nbsp;range&nbsp;to existing weapons using&nbsp;chemicals&nbsp;such as&nbsp;China&nbsp;Lake Compound #20, also&nbsp;known as CL-20, aides&nbsp;and&nbsp;people familiar with the plan told Reuters.
Developed by a government laboratory in California back in the 1980s, CL-20 is one of the most discussed chemical compounds under consideration, one senior defense official said. Congress has gravitated to studies, like one published in 2021, that said repowering a rocket with CL-20 - along with other changes - could extend&nbsp;its&nbsp;range&nbsp;by about 20%.
A paper by the Energetics Technology Center said new energetic materials give a 400-pound bomb "the same lethality as a current 1000-pound bomb," adding&nbsp;China&nbsp;makes "CL-20 on an industrial scale&nbsp;and&nbsp;built it into weapons systems."
Northrop Grumman Corp is one of the main makers of CL-20 in the United States. The other main rocket motor maker is Aerojet Rocketdyne which was purchased last week by L3Harris Technologies.
The Senate earmarked funds would be used to establish an office for energetic materials within the Department of Defense answering to the Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, according to the legislation.
The office would be a coordinating body across the Army, Navy&nbsp;and&nbsp;Air Force to cut through institutional red tape.
"This relatively modest investment for energetics is a meaningful&nbsp;and&nbsp;important initiative," said Tom Karako, a weapons expert at the Center for Strategic&nbsp;and&nbsp;International Studies.
Karako said the cost of re-powering or using new explosive&nbsp;chemicals&nbsp;in weapons in the&nbsp;U.S. inventory could be in the billions of dollars, adding that the figure was heavily dependent on which weapons were re-powered,&nbsp;and&nbsp;how many were modified or purchased.
Iain Overton, executive director with the nonprofit Action on Armed Violence, said the race to tweak already lethal weapons was not progress.
"History is said to repeat&nbsp;itself,&nbsp;and&nbsp;in the sense that arms races always end badly," he said. "Does bigger, more deadly weapons make us safer? The answer is a resounding: no. In the last decade, when explosive weapons were used in populated areas, 90% of those reported killed or injured globally were civilians."
The House version of the annual defense bill requires the Pentagon to run a CL-20 pilot program that switches out either the explosive or propellant in three existing weapons.
The House version does not name any weapons, but Bob Kavetsky with the Energetics Technology Center said candidates for the new&nbsp;chemicals&nbsp;include the Lockheed Martin-made long&nbsp;range&nbsp;anti-ship&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;and&nbsp;extended&nbsp;range&nbsp;air-to-surface&nbsp;missiles. Other candidates include Harpoon anti-ship missile made by Boeing&nbsp;and&nbsp;Javelin anti-tank weapons made by Lockheed&nbsp;and&nbsp;RTX.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders&nbsp;and&nbsp;Aurora Ellis)

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Eyeing China in the Pacific, US studies explosives to make missiles fly farther