Massive Wave of DOD Weapons Spending on the Horizon

June 25, 2014 | Edited by Lauren Mladenka and Geoff Wilson

Spending bow wave - U.S. Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) “said the Pentagon faced a ‘bow wave’ or large increase in weapons spending in the 2020s when it hopes to buy the new bomber, large numbers of new ground vehicles for the Army, and hundreds of Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets. The Navy is also working on a new submarine to replace the nuclear-armed Ohio-class submarines, and the Air Force needs to replace the Minuteman nuclear ballistic missiles, he said.”

--“Given those pressure to fund those new systems, he said it was critical for firms to find ways to cut costs, and to ensure that military leaders understood the true cost of new technologies.” Andrea Shalal has the full story in Reuters. http://reut.rs/1meMP5z

B-2’s new nukes - “The Air Force’s B-2 Spirit is receiving a technological upgrade to allow the service’s bat-winged, nuclear capable bomber to fly through 2058,” reports Kris Osborn for DOD Buzz. “Air Force officials have started planning the modernization overhaul to include digital nuclear weapons and a new receiver that allows the bomber to receive messages in the event of a nuclear detonation, said Eric Single, chief of the Global Strike division for Air Force acquisition. Northrop Grumman, the lead defense contractor on the B-2, owns a contract with a $9.9 billion ceiling to complete maintenance and modernization on the fleet of 20 stealth bombers.”

--“The comprehensive B-2 upgrades also include efforts to outfit the attack aircraft with next generation digital nuclear weapons such as the B-61 Mod 12 with a tail kit and Long Range Stand-Off weapon or, LRSO, an air-launched, guided nuclear cruise missile… The B-61 Mod 12 is an ongoing modernization program which seeks to integrate the B-61 Mods 3, 4, 7 and 10 into a single variant with a guided tail kit. The B-61 Mod 12 is being engineered to rely on an inertial measurement unit for navigation… In addition to the LRSO, B83 and B-61 Mod 12, the B-2 will also carry the B-61 Mod 11, a nuclear weapon designed with penetration capabilities… The LRSO will replace the Air Launched Cruise Missile, or ALCM, which right now is only carried by the B-52 bomber.” Read the full report here. http://bit.ly/1lTbfrb

Contract awarded - “The U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] a $1.86 billion fixed-price contract to complete the production of the fifth and sixth Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, known as GEO-5 and GEO-6, for the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS),” which provides “continuous early warning of ballistic missile launches and other tactical intelligence.” Full piece in The Wall Street Journal. http://on.wsj.com/1ivUrWE

MOX spending - “Plans to shelve a controversial program designed to recycle nuclear weapons waste in South Carolina to honor agreements with Russia have been set aside after legislators appropriated millions of dollars to keep the lagging project going,” writes Eric Connor in The Greenville News. “The money assigned by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives comes amid a spirited debate over whether the $7.7 billion project — now $3 billion over budget — is taxpayer money wasted on a program that won’t realistically work.”

--Senate and House appropriators designated $400 million and $345 million, respectively, “to continue construction on the MOX plant on the Savannah River Site near Aiken. The plant is 60 percent complete after work began in 2007.” Full story here. http://grnol.co/1pKIkpc

Tweet - @nukes_of_hazard: "At long last, the Pentagon’s chemical weapons-eating ship jumps into action" @danlamothe on whats next for Cape Ray http://wapo.st/1qwaMKU

Fool’s errand - “Ballistic missile limits continue to receive attention as a candidate for inclusion in the ongoing Iran nuclear talks – most recently in a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on June 19,” writes Tom Collina in Arms Control Now. “But making the case for inclusion ignores how seeking such limits could derail the negotiations.”

--“The success of the negotiations will be largely determined by whether or not the limitations on enrichment capability and the scope and intrusiveness of verification measures makes breaking out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty a sufficiently difficult and unattractive option for Tehran. Trying to strip Iran of its ballistic missile arsenal in the nuclear talks would be a fool’s errand, likely only to sabotage prospects for getting a grip on the issue that really matters.” Full piece here. http://bit.ly/1nGsPdA

Iran’s new reactors - “Iran said on Tuesday it expected to sign a deal with Russia in late August on the building of two new 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors in the Islamic Republic, potentially boosting its case that it is refining uranium for civilian energy, not atom bombs. Russia is one of six world powers negotiating with Iran on a long-term agreement to end a decade-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, which the country says is peaceful but the West fears may be aimed at developing a nuclear arms capability.”

--“Iran has long argued that it needs to enrich uranium - which can have both civilian and military uses - to fuel a planned network of atomic power stations and that any contract on new reactors with Russia may help it back up its case. But Russia - which built Iran's so far only nuclear reactor, at Bushehr on the country's Gulf coast - is providing the enriched fuel for that plant and may want to do that also for any future facilities it will build in Iran… Longstanding Western fears that the Bushehr project could yield spent fuel of use in nuclear weapons - something it denies it is seeking to do - receded after Iran promised to send the material back to Russia.” Read the full report from Reuters here. http://reut.rs/1sEQiUw

Join the club - “An exclusive, multinational nuclear export-control group will consider its ties with India when it meets in Buenos Aires later this week,” Global Security Newswire reports. “A draft agenda of the Nuclear Suppliers Group's yearly meeting, set to take place on Thursday and Friday in the capital of Argentina, states without further elaboration that member states will be ‘invited to a general discussion on the NSG's relationship with India...’ India is petitioning for membership in the 48-nation group, whose members voluntarily agree to only sell their nuclear products to countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,” which nuclear-armed India has refused to sign. Full piece here. http://bit.ly/1pNMGft

Feds launch WIPP inquiry - “A new investigation by federal regulators into possible safety violations associated with a radiation leak detected in February at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad could have drastic consequences for the nation’s only below-ground nuclear waste storage site and the contractor that manages it,” reports Patrick Malone for The New Mexican.

--“The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement notified WIPP and the contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, about the investigation in a letter dated June 16. It will focus on ‘the facts and circumstances associated with potential programmatic deficiencies in the nuclear safety, radiation protection, emergency management, quality assurance and worker safety and health programs’ in light of the Feb. 14 radiation leak and a truck fire at WIPP mere days earlier, according to the letter.”

--“WIPP has ceased receiving waste since the leak was detected. When it will resume accepting shipments of the hazardous remnants of decades of nuclear weapons development from Los Alamos National Laboratory and other sites remains uncertain. Estimates range from one to three years, but until the extent of the contamination from the February radiation leak can be determined, a true target date for WIPP to restart activities is anybody’s guess.” Full report here. http://bit.ly/1lT8Mgu

Quick-hits:

--“Japan to Prod Atomic Plants to Shift to Dry-Cask Storage: Report” in Global Security Newswire. http://bit.ly/1iFCt3P

--“Russia loses its only geostationary early-warning satellite” by Pavel Podvig in Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. http://bit.ly/1lbGo32

--“Test paves way for U.S. to buy more missile defense interceptors” by Andrea Shalal in Reuters. http://reut.rs/1q9snL6

--“Exclusive: Iran seeks to resolve HSBC freeze on some trade financing sources” by Jonathan Saul and Parisa Hafezi for Reuters. http://reut.rs/UFoCQp

--“Germany Says it Can Keep Interceptors in Turkey for Two More Years” in Global Security Newswire. http://bit.ly/1o2TNip

Events:

--“PONI Breakfast with Kirk Donald.” Breakfast discussion with former National Nuclear Security Administration Deputy Administrator Kirk Donald. June 26 from 9:00-10:30 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1owrOLA

--“Toward a Comprehensive, Effective Nuclear Deal with Iran?” Discussion with Daryl Kimball, Greg Thielmann, Kelsey Davenport, and Frank von Hippel. June 26 from 10:00-12:00 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Choate Room, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1p9kz8a

--“Aegis Sea-Based Missile Defense: Present Status and Future Recommendations.” Discussion with John James, Rear Adm. James Kilby, Ron O’Rourke, Henry Cooper, and Robert Soofer. June 26 from 12:00-2:00 at SVC 201-00, Capitol Visitor Center. RSVP by email to Polly Parke at pparke@ifpa.org

--“Iran Sanctions: What the U.S. Cedes in a Nuclear Deal.” Discussion with Suzanne Maloney, Kenneth Katzman, and Elizabeth Rosenberg; moderated by Robin Wright. July 8 from 9:30 to 11:00 at the U.S. Institute of Peace, 2301 Constitution Ave., NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1lTst7K

Dessert:

Detroit’s (crazy?) nuclear creditors - “As if it's not bad enough that Detroit acknowledges it owes its creditors $18 billion, another batch of would-be creditors says the city owes them much more, for garbage trucks worth $150 million to nuclear research materials valued at an alleged $1 trillion… For example, Albert O'Rourke of Oceanside, California, in February filed the claim for $1 trillion. He claimed the city had lost or destroyed "Manhattan Project" nuclear research materials housed in property he owns in Detroit. The amount is based on the price tag for building various nuclear weapons and devices related to the missing materials, O'Rourke's filing stated.”

--“City lawyers have no choice but to take such claims at face value and respond in sober, lawyerly prose. ‘Based on the information in the claim and response, the city cannot even determine what the materials are, whether they exist, where they are located and if they exist, who owns them,"’Detroit said in a June 20 court filing objecting to O'Rourke's claim.” Read the full report from Reuters here. http://reut.rs/1pNXx8Z

Not pleased - “North Korea on Wednesday denounced a forthcoming American comedy film featuring a plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong Un as an act of terrorism and threatened to unleash a ‘merciless counter-measure’ if Washington failed to ban the movie,” writes Ju-min Park in Reuters. “The movie ‘The Interview’, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, is scheduled for release in October this fall.”

-- “The Hollywood movie recounts the story of a talk show host and his producer who land a rare sit-down interview with Kim, the third leader of his family dynasty to rule North Korea. The Central Intelligence Agency then recruits the pair to assassinate him.” Full article here. http://reut.rs/1lTjPGo