The RRW's Vacuum Tube Myth
by Kingston Reif [contact information]
By Jeffrey Lewis and Kingston Reif
Published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Online on April 22, 2009
Article summary below; read the full text online
Since last fall, Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, has been stumping for the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) Program, which would develop new nuclear warheads to swap into the U.S. arsenal. In a sit-down with Wall Street Journal editors last November, Chilton held aloft a prop to make his case: "I remember what these things were for. I bet you don't. It's a vacuum tube. My father used to take these out of the television set in the 1950s and 1960s down to the local supermarket to test them and replace them."
Vacuum tube in hand, he delivered what, according to the Journal, was the punch line: "This is the technology that we have . . . today." He then took out a microchip, explaining to the credulous editorial board that, by withholding funding for the RRW Program, Congress has prevented the nuclear weapons complex from replacing outdated vacuum tubes with modern solid-state electronics.
U.S. nuclear weapons are marvels of engineering and design. Within each warhead, scientists have packed an intricate web of plastics, explosives, electronics, and fissile material that contains the bomb's destructive force. Since implementing a moratorium on nuclear testing in 1992, the United States has opted to extend the life of existing warheads while minimizing deviations from the original specifications. Exact replication isn't always possible; suppliers go out of business, manufacturing techniques change, and so on. Worried about the eventual accumulation of small changes over decades, the Bush administration proposed the RRW Program to introduce new, untested--but hopefully more reliable--nuclear weapons into the U.S. stockpile.
Enter the vacuum tube: the perfect symbol of technological obsolescence. Despite Chilton's dramatic flair, however, vacuum tubes are among the least consequential parts of current weapons and have nothing to do with the RRW debate.
Kingston Reif 202-546-0795 ext. 2103 kreif@armscontrolcenter.org
Kingston Reif is the Director of Nuclear Non-Proliferation at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, where his work focuses on arms control, nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear weapons, and preventing nuclear terrorism. He has published letters and articles on nuclear weapons policy in such venues as the Washington Post, Washington Times, Wall Street Journal, Survival, Defense News, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.