B61

While the rest of the nation is concerned with shrinking budgets, incompetence among the nuclear personnel, and pullback from wars abroad, the Obama Administration’s FY 2015 budget inexplicably calls for an increased nuclear weapons budget. Even more disturbingly, the Administration is calling for a decrease in programs to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and a slowdown in the dismantlement of nuclear weapons that we’ve already committed to destroying.

Days may be numbered for the budget busting B61 nuclear bomb. This bomb, first deployed in Europe to fight the Cold War, is facing serious challenges in Congress from both Democrats and Republicans.

The U.S. is poised to spend $11.6 billion to upgrade a handful of nuclear bombs - with each bomb costing more than twice its weight in gold. The bombs were originally put in Europe to roll back a Soviet land invasion. With the Cold War over, the costly bomb upgrades would rack up more debt while adding no benefit to our security. 

Why are the bombs still around? What else could the U.S. buy with the money? How much gold are we talking about? See the infographic below.

Two years ago, when talk of “fiscal responsibility” began to dominate the political discussion, Ploughshares Fund realized that we had an unprecedented opportunity to tilt Washington’s budget axe toward the nuclear weapons complex. So we organized and funded a campaign to reduce spending on nuclear weapons.