by Kingston Reif America’s troubled national ballistic missile defense system just found more trouble. For the first time, the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, Dr. Michael Gilmore, has determined that this system, known as Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD), may be too flawed to save. In his Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 report to […]
Center Releases In-Depth Study of the Conference Version of the FY2013 NDAA
“While the NDAA covers a broad spectrum of national security issues, the House version raised some serious concern for the future of nuclear weapons and non-proliferation programs,” said John Isaacs, Executive Director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. “Fortunately, the conferees watered down or eliminated many of the objectionable nuclear provisions including limitations on the implementation of the New START treaty.”
Strategy, Not Cold War Ideology, Should Guide Conferees on Defense Bill
“The Republican leadership seems stuck in the Cold War, authorizing hundreds of million on nuclear weapons and missile defense programs that military leaders did not request,” said Reif. “Pentagon spending should be driven by strategic need and affordability.”
Don’t blame Moscow
On July 12, the US State Department released a major annual report on arms control compliance that has riled up nuclear weapons hawks. In its annual “Report on Adherence to and Compliance With Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments,” the Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance assessed whether numerous countries complied with treaty obligations in 2012. Most of the media attention, though, has been on what the report says (and doesn’t say) about Russia. Since the report came out, Republican members of Congress and their supporters have repeatedly accused Moscow of violating arms control treaties, and the State Department of ignoring the problem.
The Pentagon’s 2013 Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat Assessment: Why There’s No Need to Panic
The National Air and Space Intelligence Center’s (NASIC) 2013 “Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat” assessment, issued on July 11, is likely to cause some consternation within the US national security community. While the press has focused primarily on the Pentagon’s assertions about the Chinese nuclear program (according to the report, China “has the most active and diverse ballistic missile development program in the world,” and the number of its warheads capable of reaching the US could grow to “well over 100 within the next 15 years”), the report also contains a few ominous-sounding claims about North Korean and Iranian missile capabilities.
