A Retiring Admiral Talks About The Future Of The U.S. Navy And It's Strategic Nuclear Submarines

USS Michigan (SSBN-727)

Budget Cuts Could Reshape The Country’s Ship Supply, Official Says. -- Walter Pincus, Washington Post

Does the United States need a 300-ship Navy or will it over the next 70 years need seven strategic nuclear submarines on patrol in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans? Each would have 24 intercontinental ballistic missiles, all of which could carry up to five nuclear warheads.

That was the choice Vice Adm. William Burke, deputy chief of Naval Operations Warfare Systems, described Tuesday at the Congressional Breakfast Seminar Series.

Burke, who is set to retire in the next few weeks, spoke frankly about the undersea portion of the U.S. strategic nuclear triad “and its intersection with our shipbuilding plan.”

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My Comment: In short .... something is going to have to be cut .... and it will impact U.S. national security.

Who Is Launching Cyber Attacks On America's Nuclear Command And Control Systems

Securing Command -- Washington Free Beacon

Strategic commander worried about cyber attacks on nuclear command and control.

U.S. strategic nuclear weapons and the command systems that control them are vulnerable to cyber attacks although most are hardened against many types of electronic attacks, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said on Tuesday.

Air Force Gen. C. Robert Kehler said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that nuclear weapons and the communications used to control them are older and thus less vulnerable to disruption by computer network attacks.

“However, we are very concerned with the potential of a cyber related attack on our nuclear command and control and on the weapons systems themselves,” Kehler said. “We do evaluate that.”

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My Comment: This sounds like something that would come out of a "Terminator" movie.

White House To Cut U.S. Nuclear Arsenal By A Third

Obama Ready To Cut Strategic Nuclear Arsenal 'By A Third' -- The Guardian

Report says the decision has been made, but not yet signed by the president

A report out today by the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington says that the Obama administration has made the decision that the US can make do with just two thirds of its current arsenal of deployed strategic nuclear warheads.

The current ceiling, agreed in the 2010 New Start Treaty with Russia, allows for 1550 of these warheads, consisting in the US case of Minuteman III missiles, submarine-launched Trident missiles and long-range bombers (the 'triad' of US deterrence). The new report says Obama will cut that to 1000-1,100 after an inter-agency review found it would not affect national security and save many billions of dollars.

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More News On The U.S. Administration's Decision To Cut U.S. Nuclear Forces By Half

Obama administration deliberating more cuts in nuclear weapons, sources say -- NBC
Report: White House set to cut nuclear arsenal by one-third -- The Hill
Nuclear Countdown? -- Mark Thompson, Time

WNU Editor: The Centre for Public Integrity in Washington report is here.

Is America's Nuclear Missile Force Crumbling?

Photo: Staff Sgt. Kevin Gorney checks out the electrical system aboard an LGM-30F Minuteman III missile in its silo, Jan. 1, 1980. Air Force photo / Tech. Sgt. Bob Wickley

The Nation’s ICBM Force: Increasingly Creaky Broken Missiles -- Matthew Vanderschuere, Time

As the Air Force begins to dust off plans for the Minuteman III ICBM replacement, a stark choice faces the service.

On one hand, the time has come to replace them. On the other, the Air Force is strapped for cash, victim to a perfect storm of bureaucratic bloat, several rounds of defense cuts, and a fighter fleet exhausted by war and age.

The purpose of our strategic deterrent is simple: prevent nuclear weapons from ever being used. And the current Minuteman III inter-continental ballistic missile system, long in the tooth at 40 years old, is the foundation of that strategy.

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My Comment: While the U.S. ponders on what to do .... the Russians are not hesitating to modernize their nuclear forces.

A Virtual Tour Of America's Nukes

The UCS Nuclear Weapons Complex Map -- Union Of Concerned Nuclear Scientists

The UCS Nuclear Weapons Complex Map is a free, publicly available, interactive tool that allows users to explore the U.S. nuclear weapons complex in Google Earth and provides information about its facilities. All the information comes from public sources.

To use the Complex Map, you must have Google Earth installed on your computer; it is free to download and install from Google.

Once you have Google Earth installed, download the file that loads the Complex Map. For more information about loading and using the Complex Map, please refer to the User’s Manual.

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My Comment: A cool interactive map .... check it out.

U.S. State Department: Recommends Deeper Nuclear Force Cuts Including Unilateral Reductions

Disarming America -- Washington Free Beacon

State Department advisory board urges deeper nuclear force cuts including unilateral reductions.

A State Department board of experts is calling for steep cuts in U.S. nuclear forces beyond the New START treaty limits and recommends unilateral or informal reductions to avoid expected Senate ratification battles.

“Treaties are an important but not always necessary method for reducing nuclear arsenals,” the new report by the International Security Advisory Board says. “The United States has reduced its nuclear arsenal without negotiating a new treaty in the past—both unilaterally and reciprocally with Russia.”

A similar cut in nuclear forces could be considered again “as the United States reduces the role and number of nuclear weapons in its national security strategy,” the report says.

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Update: Nukes likely to decline in Obama’s second term -- Center For Public Integrity

My Comment: I call this report a "laying of the groundwork" for future cuts in U.S. nuclear stockpiles.

Making The Case For Keeping America's Nuclear Triad

Keep Triad 'Best Blend' Of ICBMs, Boomers, Bombers; 'We Can Afford Them' -- Maj. Gen. William Chambers, Aol Defense

One of the biggest debates in the defense world centers on the nuclear triad. Is it too expensive? Does it actually deter anyone? Is it a Cold War relic or a crucial tool for managing risk? Some experts have argued that land-based missiles just aren't needed. Others say nuclear-capable bombers are a big fat waste of money. A very few say boomers, as nuclear missile submarines are known, are just too expensive to invest in. None of this is being discussed very publicly so when the top general who oversees the Air Force weapons that deliver nuclear warheads, Maj. Gen. William Chambers, offered us an op-ed addressing the issue we jumped at the chance to run it. The Editor.

We have just marked 50 years since the Cuban Missile Crisis, two long weeks of terror embedded in the early years of the Cold War, itself an extended period of nuclear war angst.

For that fortnight in October 1962, when we and the Soviet Union teetered on the edge of destruction our nuclear forces played a central role in winning the peace.

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My Comment: Here is my prediction .... if President Obama is re-elected this concept of maintaining a triad will be severely tested .... especially if U.S. - Russian nuclear talks on cutting nuclear forces proceeds as promised when President Obama last talked with Russian PM Medvedev.

A Look At The U.S. Military's Massive Nuclear Spending

Exploding Budgets -- Time

The government is set to spend $640 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs over the next ten years.

If you didn’t know that, you are not alone. No one has put together a reliable estimate of these future budgets – until now. A new report compiled by Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation, is the first to aggregate all the programs and plans. Our calculations reveals a total cost of between $620 billion and $661 billion, or a median average of $640 billion.

The United States currently spends about $56 billion a year on these programs. As a result, America has the most powerful, modern, nuclear force in the world, dwarfing the arsenals of all other nations save Russia.

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My Comment: Using history as my guide on how bad the pentagon is in calculating costs .... my gut is telling me that this $640 billion total is probably a low ball number.

Modernizing America's Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Will Cost $300 Billion

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
SOURCE: Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Strategic Studies Quarterly Fall 2011. GRAPHIC: Todd Lindeman - The Washington Post. Published Sept. 16, 2012.

Aging U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Slated For Costly And Long-Delayed Modernization -- Washington Post

The U.S. nuclear arsenal, the most powerful but indiscriminate class of weapons ever created, is set to undergo the costliest overhaul in its history, even as the military faces spending cuts to its conventional arms programs at a time of fiscal crisis.

For two decades, U.S. administrations have confronted the decrepit, neglected state of the aging nuclear weapons complex. Yet officials have repeatedly put off sinking huge sums into projects that receive little public recognition, driving up the costs even further.

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More News On America Modernizing It's Nuclear Forces

U.S. To Modernize Nuclear Arsenal: Report -- Defense News/AFP
U.S. Nuclear Arms Due for High-Cost Revamp -- Global Security Newswire
US to fix nuclear cache -- Sydney Morning Herald
Modernisation Of U.S Nuclear Arsenal To Cost Over $300 Billion -- Defense World
US to Spend at Least $350 Billion on Nuke Upgrades -- Antiwar.com
Aging US nuclear arsenal set for multibillion-dollar revamp -- RT
Op-Ed: U.S. nuclear arsenal upgrade to cost at least $350 billion -- Digital Journal
The B61 bomb: A case study in costs and needs -- Washington Post

Who Is Going To Build America's Next Generation Of Nuclear Weapons?

An unarmed Trident II D5 missile launches from the U.S. Navy's Ohio-class fleet ballistic-missile submarine USS Nevada (SSBN 733) off the coast of Southern California in March 2011. (U.S. Navy)

Nuke Expert Pool Shrinking -- Defense News

Drop in Weapons Testing Raises Safety Concerns in U.S.

In about five years, every scientist with experience designing and testing nuclear weapons will have retired from the U.S. government.

Thomas D’Agostino, the undersecretary for nuclear security and the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), said the number of nuclear scientists with weapons testing experience is somewhere in the mid- to low teens.

The definition he uses for test experience is “someone who’s had a key hand in the design of a warhead that’s in the existing stockpile and who was responsible for that particular design when it was tested back in the early 1990s.”

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My Comment: America's expertise on nuclear weapons is not the only thing that is being questioned.

Inside A Nuclear Silo

Nuclear missile launch teams tether cases containing classified documents to their bodies before heading off to their 24-hour-alert shift in a Montana missile field. Jonathan Torgovnik

Meet The Airmen Who Watch Over America's Nukes—And Await the Unthinkable -- Popular Mechanics

Deep underground in remote locales lies the United States' stockpile of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Though they are icons of the Cold War, ICBMs remain the cornerstone of U.S. nuclear defense, and stand at 99 percent readiness levels decades into their lifetimes. Popular Mechanics descends into a Montana bunker to meet the airmen who stand guard over America's nukes, awaiting the call they hope never to receive.

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My Comment: It has cost the U.S. taxpayer almost $1 trillion to have such an arsenal .... an arsenal that we rarely get a chance to peek at (until now).

More Reductions In America's Nuclear Arsenal Studied

Pentagon Studying Additional Nuke Reductions -- Global Security Newswire

The U.S. Defense Department has received an Obama administration directive to consider if it is possible to make even deeper cuts to the nation's nuclear deterrent than those mandated by a new strategic arms control treaty with Russia, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday (see GSN, Feb. 14).

President Obama called for the classified Pentagon-headed study toward the beginning of 2010, but the assessment was initiated not long ago, Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. The study is not anticipated to be finished until late 2011.

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Update #1: US reviewing nuclear arsenal with eye to new cuts -- PilotOnline/AP
Update #2: U.S. Air Force Locates Funds for Future-ICBM Studies -- Global Security Newswire

My Comment: This news is raising a few eyebrows in the Pentagon/defense think tanks/and politicians. Why the assessment now .... just after signing an arms agreement with Russia. What is the purpose and agenda .... one that is not being told to us .... for this administration to pursue such a study. Until we have more information, this is all speculation .... but speculation that many are feeling very uncomfortable knowing that such an assessment is happening.

Life In A Nuclear Silo

In Nuclear Silos, Death Wears A Snuggie -- The Danger Room

At a small United States Air Force installation in eastern Wyoming, I’m sitting at an electronic console, ready to unleash nuclear hell. In front of me is a strange amalgamation of ’60s-era flip switches and modern digital display screens. It’s the control console for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM.

On an archaic display screen in the center of the console, three large letters blink in rapid succession. “EAM inbound,” says my deputy commander and the second member of the launch crew. An emergency-action message is on its way, maybe from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, maybe from the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, maybe even from the president. We both mechanically pull down our code books, thick binders swollen with pages of alpha-numeric sequences, and swiftly decipher the message.

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My Comment: A fascinating post .... read it all.

Is Our Nuclear Stockpile Safe? Questions For The Head of Global Strike Command

Photo: Crews at Malmstrom Air Force Base fit a dummy nuclear warhead onto a missile. (Photo by Jonothan Targovnick)

Questions For Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, Head Of Global Strike Command -- Popular Mechanics

In 2011, nuclear weapons will take center stage of defense negotiations as the United States Senate debates the ratification of the New START treaty with Russia. The treaty will reduce the amount of warheads in the U.S. and Russian arsenals. But the nukes aren't going anywhere. In April the Obama administration released a Nuclear Posture Review, the third since the end of the Cold War, that says—somewhat in contrast to the president's oft-repeated desire to "work toward a world without nuclear weapons"—that U.S. policy is to retain its nuclear triad of bombers, ICBMs and submarine-launched missiles. "As long as nuclear weapons exist, the United States will sustain safe, secure and effective nuclear forces," it states. The security of those weapons has been questioned after an incident in late October knocked out communications between an underground launch center and the ICBMs. PM recently sat down at the Pentagon with Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, the commander of Global Strike Command, to discuss the state of America's nuclear arsenal, from the treaty tables to the missile silos.

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Acronyms Of A Nuclear Missile Launch

From Popular Mechanics:

"LF" popped up on the screen in a bunker containing intercontinental ballistic missiles this past week. What does it mean? Launch Facility Down. In other words we lost contact with 50 nuclear missiles—one-fifth of the stockpile—for nearly an hour. Here's a look at this technical error and other acronyms that relay the status of our nation's weaponry.

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My Comment: Will that day ever arrive in which these acronyms are used in a real situation .... God ..... I hope not.

More Fallout From Last Week's U.S. Missile Malfunction

Official Says Missile Malfunction Not A Sign Of Greater Problems -- CNN

Washington (CNN) -- A high-level Air Force official defended the capabilities of the U.S. nuclear arsenal Thursday, after the Air Force lost communication with 50 nuclear missiles last weekend.

"I don't think it signals a degradation," Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Carrol Chandler said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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More News On This Weekends Nuclear Missile Glitch

Lt. Gen. Jameson: ICBM shutdown had 'no real bearing on the capabilities of our nuclear forces' -- Democracy Arsenal
No Significant Threat From Missile Glitch, Officials Say -- U.S. Department of Defense
Computer problem blamed for missile site malfunction -- CNN
US nuclear missiles go offline after computer glitch: Report -- Economic Times
US Investigates Nuclear Missile Incident -- Voice of America
Mr President we've lost control of FIFTY nuclear warheads: Obama told how his arsenal was hit by 45-minute computer glitch -- The Daily Mail
Drunk American sergeant can press the red button any time -- Pravda
ICBM episode seized by START proponents, critics -- Laura Rozen, Politico
Did the ICBM Fiasco Kill New START? -- John Noonan, Weekly Standard
Nuclear Fail: Is START in Trouble? -- Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic
Nonsense about New START and ICBMs -- FAS Strategic Security Blog

15% Of Landbased U.S. Nuclear Missile Forces Were Temporarily Offline On Saturday.

Failure Shuts Down Squadron of Nuclear Missiles -- The Atlantic

President Obama was briefed this morning on an engineering power failure at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming that took 50 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), one-ninth of the U.S. missile stockpile, temporarily offline on Saturday.

The base is a main locus of the United States' strategic nuclear forces. The 90th Missile Wing, headquartered there, controls 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles. They're on full-time alert and are housed in a variety of bunkers across several states.

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My Comment: These missile are on the front line in providing the U.S. with a nuclear deterrent. As a result, this engineering catastrophe is inexcusable, even prompting a briefing that had to be done for President Obama.

I know that answers will eventually be found on why this happened .... my suggestion .... find out fast.

U.S. Nuclear Missile Silos From 1980 - 2010 (Pictures)

(Click Image To Enlarge)
090601-F-6655M-763. Sen. Mark Begich, center left, and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, center right, listen to a brief on a ground-based interceptor missile silo on Fort Greeley, Alaska, June 1, 2009. Gates is touring missile defense facilities in Alaska. (DoD photo by Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison, U.S. Air Force/Released)

From Cryptome:

President Obama promised Thursday to spend $80 billion over 10 years to maintain and modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal, a commitment that could help win Republican support for his new arms control treaty with Russia.

The treaty requires each side to deploy no more than 1,550 strategic warheads and 700 bombers, missiles and submarine launchers, and it establishes a new verification system to replace the one that expired along with the original Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in December.

WNU Editor: To read and see more pictures .... go here.

Hat Tip: Extra Good Shit

The U.S. Has 5,113 Active Nuclear Warheads

U.S. Says Nuclear Arsenal Includes 5,113 Warheads -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The United States disclosed for the first time on Monday the current size of its nuclear arsenal, saying it had a total of 5,113 warheads operationally deployed, kept in active reserve and held in inactive storage.

According to figures released by the Pentagon, the U.S. nuclear arsenal has been reduced by 84 percent from its maximum level of 31,225 warheads at the end of fiscal year 1967.

By releasing the data during the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, analysts said the United States was trying to show it is cutting its arsenal so as to help persuade other states to tighten the global nonproliferation regime.

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Update: US says it has 5,113 nuclear warheads -- AP

My Comment: A few years ago disclosing such a number would be treated as a treasonable offense. Today .... it is now politics and PR.

Limiting U.S. Rules Of Engagements With Its Nukes

Secretary of Defense Gates inspects a GBI at Ft. Greely, AK

U.S. Should Embrace Using Nukes for Nuclear Threat Only, Experts Say -- Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON -- The greatest contribution the Obama administration's forthcoming review of U.S. nuclear strategy could make to nonproliferation is to establish a doctrine that pledges to use such weapons only against atomic threats, a leading disarmament advocate said last week (see GSN, Jan. 19).

The Pentagon-led Nuclear Posture Review, expected to be released in March, is to establish policies for the U.S. nuclear deterrent over the next five to 10 years. It should make a "strong statement about nuclear policy which can assure the world that we're still not in the position of planning to use nuclear weapons, particularly in a pre-emptive manner; an impression that had been left in the world in the last decade or so," said former Defense Secretary William Perry.

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My Comment: This is a noble endeavor .... unfortunately .... a number of countries in the world will probably not follow the same rules and guidelines that the U.S. is now willing to implement for itself.

But I understand that someone has to at least make the first step.