Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

  • Policy Issues
    • Fact Sheets
    • Countries
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Non-Proliferation
    • Nuclear Security
    • Biological & Chemical Weapons
    • Defense Spending
    • Missile Defense
    • No First Use
  • Nukes of Hazard
    • Podcast
    • Blog
      • Next Up In Arms Control
    • Videos
  • Join Us
  • Press
  • About
    • Staff
    • Boards & Experts
    • Jobs & Internships
    • Financials and Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • Search
You are here: Home / Front and Center / Vacuum Tubes, Cont’d

May 14, 2009

Vacuum Tubes, Cont’d

As I hinted at yesterday, Gen. Chilton’s performance at last week’s Defense Writers Group Breakfast was not only noteworthy for his outlandish statements on the relevance of nuclear weapons to deterring cyber attacks.  

In response to a question from Global Security Newswire’s Elaine Grossman, Gen. Chilton pushed back against the article Jeffrey Lewis and I penned in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on how vacuum tubes are irrelevant to the RRW/modernization debate.  Yet in lieu of refuting any of the specific points we made in the piece, Gen. Chilton changed the subject:

…the strategic commander said Lewis and Reif had misconstrued his point, which he insisted was to call for a broad overhaul in the nuclear stockpile and the complex that maintains the weapons.

“A life-extension program is what we have [had] to do for the last 15 years, and I think it’s been successful to this point,” Chilton told reporters at a May 7 Defense Writers Group breakfast. However, he said, “I don’t think that gets you to where you want to be 20 years from now.”

Rather, steps must be taken to “modernize” the arsenal, giving the weapons increased reliability, safety, security and maintainability, he said.

I won’t summarize our entire response here but we pushed back pretty hard.  However, I do want to briefly note that what I found really bizarre about Gen. Chilton’s remarks (other than fact that he clearly did not read our piece) is that his central point seems to be that vacuum tubes aren’t the issue.  Funny, since that’s central to our argument as well.  While I certainly disagree with Chilton about how best to maintain the safety, security, and reliability of our arsenal, that’s exactly the debate we need to be having.  Based on his most recent remarks Chilton seems to agree that vacuum tubes should have no part in that debate. As Jeffrey notes, if that’s the case, then, Gen. Chilton needs to correct the ridiculous claims he fed to the Wall Street Journal.  If that’s not the case, then he needs to refute the specific points we made in our article.

Posted in: Front and Center, Nukes of Hazard blog

Tweets by Nukes of Hazard

Recent Posts

  • Next Up – It’s Your Turn  March 27, 2023
  • Germany walks fine line on nuclear weapons March 24, 2023
  • Russia-Ukraine War Threatens to Trigger New Nuclear Arms Race March 22, 2023
  • A Major Clue to COVID’s Origins Is Just Out of Reach March 21, 2023
  • Growing number of high-security pathogen labs around world raises concerns March 17, 2023
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

820 1st Street NE, Suite LL-180
Washington, D.C. 20002
Phone: 202.546.0795

Issues

  • Fact Sheets
  • Countries
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Non-Proliferation
  • Nuclear Security
  • Defense Spending
  • Biological and Chemical Weapons
  • Missile Defense
  • No First Use

Countries

  • China
  • France
  • India and Pakistan
  • Iran
  • Israel
  • North Korea
  • Russia
  • United Kingdom

Explore

  • Nukes of Hazard blog
  • Nukes of Hazard podcast
  • Nukes of Hazard videos
  • Front and Center
  • Fact Sheets

About

  • About
  • Meet the Staff
  • Boards & Experts
  • Press
  • Jobs & Internships
  • Financials and Annual Reports
  • Contact Us
  • Council for a Livable World
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

© 2023 Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
Privacy Policy

Charity Navigator GuideStar Seal of Transparency