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NO NEW NUKES! The Democrats are taking some positive steps on the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, an effort to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal:
A U.S. House Armed Services subcommittee voted to slow the Reliable Replacement Warhead program and cut $764 million from missile defense programs during a budget-writing session May 2. Led by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, the Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee cut $1.3 billion from the $52.7 billion President George W. Bush requested for nuclear weapons, space and missile defense programs for 2008.On one of the more controversial decisions, Tauscher, D-Calif., said her subcommittee wants the National Nuclear Security Administration "to walk before they run" when it comes to modernizing nuclear weapons and building a new weapons production complex. Thus, members voted unanimously to cut $45 million of the $119 million sought for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program. And the subcommittee eliminated a $25 million request for the new weapons complex.The modernization idea is being pushed by the nuclear labs and some other organizations, but is really one of the most nonsensical things to come down the pike in a while. The argument is that the aging arsenal is unreliable, and that replacing certain parts of weapons that are susceptible to degradation is risky in that it will result in what is essentially an untested complete weapon. This would all make sense ... if it made even a lick of sense. The United States has thousands of nuclear warheads, and elementary deterrence theory tells us that we don't need to be certain about the reliability of each warhead. A nuke isn't like an F-16; the latter is used regularly, and if it crashes, someone dies. The former is used never, and there's no difference whatsoever in the deterrent effect of the weapons if they're 100 percent effective, 99 percent effective, or even 50 percent effective.
Sharon at Danger Zone has a bit more.
--Robert Farley
