At the Chicago Summit NATO will once again reaffirm nuclear status quo in Europe . By Hans M. Kristensen Does NATO have a hard time waking up from its nuclear past? It would seem so. Similar to the movie Groundhog Day where a reporter played by Bill Murray wakes up to relive the same day […]
The expected cost of the B61 Life-Extension Program has increased by 50 percent to $6 billion . By Hans M. Kristensen The expected cost of the B61 Life-Extension Program (LEP) has increased by 50 percent to $6 billion dollars, according to U.S. government sources. Only one year ago, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) estimated […]
A new report describes U.S. and Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons . By Hans M. Kristensen A new report estimates that Russia and the United States combined have a total of roughly 2,800 nuclear warheads assigned to their non-strategic nuclear forces. Several thousands more have been retired and are awaiting dismantlement. The report comes shortly before […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The organization Reaching Critical Will has published a collection of articles about the nuclear weapons modernization programs that are underway in the various nuclear weapons states around the world. My modest contribution is the chapter on France (pages 27-33). The report – Assuring Destruction Forever – illustrates that although the Cold War […]
More than two-thirds of Russia’s current ICBM force will be retired over the next 10 years, a reduction that will only partly be offset by deployment of new road-mobile RS-24 Yars (SS-27 Mod 2) ICBMs such as this one near Teykovo northeast of Moscow. . By Hans M. Kristensen Russia is planning to retire more […]
Road-mobile DF-31/31A ICBM launchers deploying to Central China are visible on new commercial satellite images. Click on image for larger version. . By Hans M. Kristensen Recent satellite images show that China is setting up launch units for its newest road-mobile Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) in central China. Several launchers of the new DF-31/31A appeared […]
DIA threat assessment shows slower Chinese nuclear modernization. . By Hans M. Kristensen At about the same time nuclear arms reduction opponents last week incorrectly accused the Obama administration of considering “reckless” cuts in nuclear forces that would leave the United States “with fewer warheads than China,” Congress received its annual threat assessment from the […]
Despite an outcry from congressional republicans and conservatives against the Obama administration’s plans to reduce nuclear weapons, Republican presidents have been the big disarmers in the post-Cold War era. Click graph for larger version . By […]
By Hans M. Kristensen It is worth your time reading Joe Cirincione’s article in Foreign Affairs: Obama’s Turn on Nuclear Weapons. And I’m not just saying this because Joe is president of the Ploughshares Fund, one of my funders. He does a great job in describing the Obama administration’s ongoing nuclear targeting review and its place in […]
The new defense budget has “no cuts” in nuclear forces. . By Hans M. Kristensen “There are no cuts made in the nuclear force in this budget.” That clear statement was made yesterday by deputy defense secretary Ashton Carter during the Pentagon’s briefing on the defense budget request for Fiscal Year 2013. We’ll have to […]
Gen. V.K. Singh . By Hans M. Kristensen India’s nuclear weapons “are not for warfighting,” the chief of India’s army said Sunday at the Army Day Parade. The weapons have “a strategic capability and that is where it should end,” General V. K. Singh declared. The rejection of nuclear warfighting ideas is a welcoming development […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The Obama administration today presented a new defense strategy that it says is needed to realign U.S. military forces and doctrine with the reductions in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the new fiscal constraints created by the financial crisis. There are few details in the new strategy for how […]