The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee eliminated funding for a Bush administration plan to modify submarines carrying nuclear Trident ballistic missiles to deploy conventionally armed Tridents, judging it a potentially "provocative" capability.
U.S. biodefense advocates have been "crying wolf" on the potential for catastrophic bioterrorism, playing up worst-case scenarios and driving billions of dollars into developing questionable defenses against questionable threats, according to a U.S. military analyst.
The U.S. Strategic Command announced yesterday it had achieved an operational capability for rapidly striking targets around the globe using nuclear or conventional weapons, after last month testing its capacity for nuclear war against a fictional country believed to represent North Korea.
A senior Bush administration official and the House Appropriations Committee this week declared the Energy Department’s controversial Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator study dead. The study, intended to assess the feasibility of developing a reliable, deeper-penetrating nuclear weapon than currently in the arsenal has been the subject of domestic and international criticism. Proponents say it is needed to threaten hardened and deeply buried targets. Critics say it could cause mass civilian destruction if used, might be deemed a more “usable” weapon, and undermines global nonproliferation efforts.
The U.S. Senate has increased funding for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) which will boost the existing international network of nuclear monitoring devices (IMS).
The United States should immediately begin efforts to produce a new "family" of nuclear weapons to replace the current U.S. arsenal, according to an Energy Department-commissioned task force report.
Officials testified before congress on the multiple avenues of defense the U.S. is pursuing against a possible terrorist attack using bioengineered pathogens.
Iran appears to be developing a ?latent? nuclear weapons capability that does not include assembling complete bombs or violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a U.S. expert said yesterday.
A nuclear weapon modified for earth-penetration that the Bush administration is seeking funding to study would not burrow far enough into the earth to contain its blast according to a Senior Department of Energy official.
Parties to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty are expected to begin discussing next week whether to expand the responsibilities and capabilities of the treaty?s monitoring organization to include global tsunami alerts.