by Kingston Reif Just when you thought the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee (HASC) couldn’t possibly go any crazier on nuclear weapons and missile defense, it doubled down on its fanaticism during last week’s mark up of the FY 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The result is a bill that if passed into law […]
Fact Sheet: The New START Treaty
By Sam Kane and Kingston Reif WHAT IS THE NEW START TREATY? • The New START treaty is a nuclear arms reduction agreement between the United States and Russia. It was signed in April 2010, approved by the US Senate in December 2010, and entered into force in February 2011. WHAT ARE THE TERMS OF […]
It’s smart to scale back nuclear weapons spending
Published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Online on May 21, 2013. Article summary below; read the full text here. As part of his effort to win Republican support for the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in 2010, President Obama submitted to lawmakers a 10-year plan to maintain and modernize US nuclear warheads, […]
Pruning the Nuclear Triad? Pros and Cons of Submarines, Bombers, and Missiles
by Kingston Reif and Travis Sharp Updated by Usha Sahay Since 1959, the United States has maintained a “triad” of nuclear weapons delivery systems, which consists of nuclear-armed bombers, land-based missiles, and submarine-launched missiles. Traditionally, it has been argued that the triad, with its three distinct delivery platforms, offers the U.S. a diverse set of […]
Do You Even Have to HASC: House Republicans Still Love the Bomb
by Kingston Reif Just when you thought the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee (HASC) couldn’t possibly go any crazier on nuclear weapons and missile defense, it doubled down on its fanaticism during last week’s mark up of the FY 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The result is a bill that if passed into law […]