At the end of this week, thousands of experts in one of humanity’s most terrible possibilities — nuclear war — will meet here in Washington to discuss how to avoid what they have spent their careers planning to do, in hopes they never will. Michael Krepon, one of America’s most experienced practitioners of the arcane art of… Keep reading →

The modernization of America’s nuclear weapons looms as one of the largest and most crucial set of strategic and spending decisions the American military faces over the next decade. A crucial element in this discussion is how does America best prove it can deliver these weapons — without annihilating certain portions of our globe —… Keep reading →

  Opponents of nuclear modernization worry that the presidential elections this year could end their hopes of killing a number of nuclear modernization programs—such as the Long Range Stand-Off cruise missile (LRSO) and the B-61 Mod 12 life extension program. Unfortunately for nuclear minimalists and abolitionists, President Obama has been true to his word and continued to support nuclear… Keep reading →

Here’s a thought experiment. What if Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders becomes president? What would a Sanders defense program look like? Yes, yes, a near win in Iowa does not a presidential nominee make. Even though he’ll probably win in his neighboring state of New Hampshire, there is a long slog to the convention. Then there is… Keep reading →

A new era of warfare began when the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 70 years ago. While ordinary Japanese had grown used to seeing American bombers overhead, the hell on earth that was unleashed on August 6, 1945 eclipsed anything anyone had seen before. Estimates suggest that at least 90,000 of Hiroshima’s 380,000… Keep reading →

Barack Obama is not likely to be mistaken for Teddy Roosevelt. Yes, his foreign policy has been quite soft-spoken—especially when addressing openly hostile states such as Iran. But he has whittled America’s “big stick” down to kindling. While “resetting” with Russia and “engaging” with Iran, Mr. Obama has presided over a tremendous down-sizing of U.S.… Keep reading →

As the House and Senate gear up for votes in the coming days to fund the Defense Department, lawmakers are set to support a bow wave of costly nuclear weapons programs increasingly at odds with the needs of U.S. troops and the future threats that dominate their agenda. Notably for a president who famously championed… Keep reading →

Nuclear modernization will receive at least $1.2 billion more this year than last year’s $23.5 billion if the president’s Defense Department budget request is approved. Modernization funding for nuclear weapons and their delivery systems comprise 4 percent of the defense budget and 0.6 percent of the Federal budget. These include : the Ohio-class submarine replacement program (ORP);… Keep reading →

The United States Air Force needs to replace the Minuteman III ICBM fleet at the three nuclear missile bases in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. Critics decry the cost of a proposed replacement, thought to be in the range of several hundred billion dollars. Their main argument against replacing ICBMs is not the cost of replacing the… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: It isn’t official but Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work hinted today that the United States will undertake a fundamental reordering of its national security budget by paying for new nuclear submarines, new nuclear bombers and new ICBMs in new accounts set aside just for them. “This is something we have discussed in the department,” Work… Keep reading →