By Hans M. Kristensen Does the U.S. Navy have more ballistic missile submarines than it needs? Dramatic reductions in deterrent patrols – but not submarines – suggest so. Over the past thirteen years, the number of deterrent patrols conducted each year by U.S. ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) has declined by more than half. During most […]
“Intelligence activity in the past decades has, all too often, exceeded the restraints on the exercise of governmental power that are imposed by our country’s Constitution, laws, and traditions,” according to the Congressional Research Service. The CRS, which shuns polemical claims, presents that assertion as a simple statement of fact (although cautiously sourced to the […]
The Department of Defense has revised its 1996 directive on non-lethal weapons (NLW) to guide future development and procurement of this category of weaponry. “Unlike conventional lethal weapons that destroy their targets principally through blast, penetration, and fragmentation, NLW employ means other than gross physical destruction to prevent the target from functioning. NLW are intended […]
By Hans M. Kristensen Greetings from Geneva! I’m at the Palais des Nations for the second Preparatory Committee (PREPCOM) meeting for the 2015 Review Conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). I was invited by the Swiss and New Zealand UN Missions to brief our report Reducing Alert Rates of Nuclear Weapons. With me on […]
The latest updates from the Congressional Research Service include the following. Armed Conflict in Syria: U.S. and International Response, April 22, 2013 Turkey: Background and U.S. Relations, April 23, 2013 Department of Defense Implementation of the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative: Implications for Federal Information Technology Reform Management, April 23, 2013 Security Assistance Reform: “Section […]
The White House should undertake a focused effort to reduce national security secrecy, some 30 public interest organizations urged President Obama in a letter today. The groups called upon the President to adopt a recommendation of the Public Interest Declassification Board to set up a White House-led Security Classification Reform Steering Committee. “A presidentially appointed […]
Dozens of federal laws protect employees who report waste, fraud or abuse by their employers. Some of those laws, particularly those that apply to private-sector workers, have been strengthened in recent years, according to a new survey from the Congressional Research Service. “Eleven of the forty laws reviewed in this report were enacted after 1999. […]
An enormous volume of photographic imagery from the KH-9 HEXAGON intelligence satellites was quietly declassified in January and will be transferred to the National Archives later this year for subsequent public release. The KH-9 satellites operated between 1971 and 1984. The imagery they generated should be of historical interest with respect to a wide range […]
Just as law enforcement relied upon surveillance cameras and personal photography to enable the prompt identification of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing, U.S. armed forces increasingly look to the collection of still and motion imagery to support military operations. Combat camera (COMCAM) capabilities support “operational planning, public affairs, information operations, mission assessment, forensic, […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The U.S. Air Force plans to arm the B-2A stealth bomber with a new nuclear cruise missile that is in the early stages of development, according to Air Force officials and budget documents. The B-2A bomber, which is designed to slip through air defenses undetected, does not currently have a capability […]
By Michael Edward Walsh The concept of emerging security challenges is not new. Mankind has always had to adapt to novel scientific and technological innovations that have changed the nature of war and violence within society. The sudden focus on emerging security challenges is then not driven by their mere emergence but rather by the […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The size of China’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force appears to be leveling out instead of increasing. During Thursday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Current and Future Worldwide Threats, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) director Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn told the lawmakers: China’s nuclear arsenal currently consists of approximately 50-75 […]