Air Force Pitches Nuclear Slush Fund to Congress

Air Force slush fund - The Air Force is realizing that it cannot pay for its nuclear plans under the current U.S. budget. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, “asked lawmakers to consider funding a joint service ‘strategic deterrence’ account that would pay for the Air Force’s legs of the nuclear triad – the B-21 bomber and the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent – as well as recapitalizing the Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic submarines,” reports Lara Seligman for Defense News.

--James “acknowledged the tradeoffs necessitated by the tight budget environment, but urged Congress to consider funding the B-21 and the GBSD through any separate ‘strategic deterrence’ account… If the Air Force is forced to fund its two legs of the nuclear triad within the existing toplines, the service will have to make further reductions to the force and conventional modernization, she stressed.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/254yxig

Tweet - @plough_shares: #Ireland was the first country invited to sign the #NPT in 1968 http://bit.ly/1nRa3ao

New Sanctions for North Korea - “President Barack Obama hit North Korea with new sanctions Wednesday in response to the country’s ‘illicit’ nuclear and ballistic missile tests earlier this year,” writes Darlene Superville for the AP. “An executive order signed by the president implements two sets of sanctions: those that unanimously cleared the U.N. Security Council and a separate round of U.S. sanctions enacted by Obama after Congress overwhelmingly approved and sent him legislation.”

--“The executive order prohibits the exportation of goods, services and technology to North Korea and prohibits new investment in North Korea. It also establishes nine new criteria allowing the Treasury Department to target North Korea’s human rights abuses, censorship, cybersecurity threats, trade in metals, graphite, coal, or software; revenue from overseas workers; and attempts to engage in those activities.” Full report here. http://wapo.st/1TP3VgZ

Tweet - @KingstonAReif: .@SenFeinstein: "Outside MOX I dont see tough choices being made. See more $ for weapons, less $ for everythng else" 1.usa.gov/22kbNMm

The boomer bust - “The Pacific-based nuclear ballistic-missile submarine USS Kentucky has deployed for the first time since 2011 after an overhaul as part of efforts to extend the life of aging Ohio-class boats while the U.S. develops a replacement,” writes Erik Slavin for Stars and Stripes. “The Kentucky and the other 13 nuclear missile-capable submarines in the Ohio class were designed to last 30 years; however, delays in developing and funding their replacements led to the creation of a 40-month overhaul program for each ship.”

--“Replacing the Ohio class is expected to cost $95.8 billion, including research and development costs. Following the outsized initial expense of developing the first sub, the Navy is trying to reduce the cost of boats two through 12 to $4.9 billion each. However, it remains unclear how the Pentagon is going to pay for Ohio-class replacements. ‘The Navy cannot procure the Ohio replacement in the 2020s within historical shipbuilding funding levels without severely impacting other Navy programs,’ then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told Congress in February 2015.”

--“A 2013 paper from the libertarian Cato Institute suggested keeping 12 nuclear missile-capable submarines and paying for them by eliminating the other two legs of the nuclear triad -- intercontinental missiles and bombers. ‘The sea leg of the nuclear triad by itself is a more powerful deterrent than that possessed by nearly any other nation in the world… Russia retains a relatively large arsenal, but no other country is capable of deploying more than a few hundred nuclear warheads. A single Ohio-class submarine can carry up to 192.’” Read the full piece here. http://bit.ly/1UCET3s

Listen up Donald - “The agreement that rolled back Iran's nuclear program has been praised by America's leading policy experts, nuclear scientists, editorial boards, and our key allies,” writes Joe Cirincione for The Huffington Post. “But not by Donald Trump. It is "disastrous..horrible," he thunders. "I've never seen something so incompetently negotiated."

--“Before he repeats his claims at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference next week, maybe he should talk to some people who know a good security deal when they see one: Israel's military and intelligence leaders. There is a strong consensus among those charged with defending Israel that the Iran agreement improves Israel's security.” Read the full piece here. http://huff.to/1nRc06I

Incentives - “Nuclear weapons are primarily sought and retained not for reasons of security, but for prestige. Security concerns are typically secondary or post-hoc rationalizations. What unites the nuclear-armed states is not that they find themselves in particularly difficult security environments, but rather their leaders’ view of their nations as somehow exceptional and thereby entitled to nuclear weapons,” writes Kjølv Egeland for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

--“To create a world free of nuclear weapons… the incentive structures of the nuclear order must change. As with chemical and biological weapons, nuclear weapons must be re-cast as uncivilized, repugnant weapons, rather than status symbols. The humanitarian initiative... has been a notable expression of this idea... The supporters of the initiative hope, much like the child in the story of the emperor’s new clothes, to undress the woolly rhetoric of ‘deterrence,’ ‘stability,’ and ‘special responsibilities’ in which nuclear weapons are wrapped.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/1VdLa69

Quick Hits:

--“The Iran deal bears some fruit,” by Doug Bandow for The Detroit News. http://detne.ws/1QZpYhj

--“What’s Missed in Campaign Pledges to Tear Up the Iran Nuclear Deal,” by Aaron David Miller for the Wall Street Journal. http://on.wsj.com/1SUDfKs

--“Surprise nuclear strike? Here's how we'll figure out who did it,” by Richard Stone for Science. http://bit.ly/229t1bz

Events:

--Book launch: Asia's Latent Nuclear Powers: Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, by Mark Fitzpatrick, Executive Director, IISS–US. Discussion with Mark Fitzpatrick and Robert Gallucci, the former State Department special envoy for North Korea. March 17 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at IISS-US, 2121 K Street NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20037. RSVP by email. http://bit.ly/222PI4I

--“A Global Reality Check on Nuclear Security,” featuring Toby Dalton, Matthew Bunn, Martin Malin, Nickolas Roth and William Tobey, Harvard University. March 21 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. Carnegie Endowment, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington. RSVP online. http://ceip.org/250oIle

--“A Norm for Nuclear Material Production: Beyond the Washington Summit and the Iran Deal,” featuring James Acton, Ariel Levite and Togzhan Kassenova, Carnegie Endowment. March 22 from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. at the Carnegie Endowment, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington. RSVP online. http://ceip.org/251TvOP

--“U.S.-Japanese Nuclear Cooperation and the Problem of Plutonium,” featuring William Tobey, Harvard University; Ota Masakatsu, Kyodo News; Fumihiko Yoshida, Carnegie Endowment; Henry Sokolski, Nonproliferation Policy Education Center; and Rep. Brad Sherman (CA). March 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the Capitol Visitors Center, Room SVC215, Washington. RSVP online. http://bit.ly/1pMFioF

--“Inside North Korea Today: Working for Peace on the Korean Peninsula,” featuring Linda Lewis, American Friends Service Committee. March 23 from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. at George Washington University, 1957 E St. NW, Conference Room 505, Washington. RSVP online. http://bit.ly/1LojlGm

Dessert:

Hope the cockroaches like beer - In the 1950s, “the Pentagon detonated hundreds of nukes and studied the effects. Washington was sure the next war would be a nuclear — and wanted to be ready. That’s why, in the spring of 1955, America nuked beer in the Nevada desert,” writes Matthew Gault for War is Boring.

--“Miraculously, most of the beer and soda survived [the detonation]... The metal and glass containers did become radioactive after the blast, but the AEC claimed the levels were low… Then they opened up the bottles and cans to bravely take some swigs of the not-irradiated-we-totally-swear drinks. Initial experiments in flavor retention found the drinks still tasted fine … mostly.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/1S5cEbh