US plans new warheads

[admin]

US plans new warheads

Evidence is emerging that the programme to maintain the safety and reliability of the US nuclear weapons stockpile will be adapted for the design and future development of a new class of warheads. Approval is also expected for the US Department of Defence's evolving pre-emptive strategy, which the new weapons would be a part of. Critics see the new guidelines as moving towards an increasing role for nuclear weapons in US war planning and the strategy's public disclosure encouraging rather than discouraging proliferation at a time when the crisis surrounding Iran and North Korea's nuclear programmes persist.

Under the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) programme created by Republican Congressman David Hobson of Ohio in the fiscal 2005 Consolidated Appropriations Bill, reliability and longevity of existing weapons and their components is to be improved. The RRW was intended to allow only existing weapons to be renovated without developing new systems that would require underground testing.

Hobson and others have persistently opposed the Bush administration's efforts to develop new nuclear weapons to eliminate deeply buried hard targets (DBHTs) harbouring arsenals of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) possessed by states or terrorists. The RRW was therefore set up as a compromise to maintain stewardship while engaging the nuclear weapons laboratories in challenging research and engineering problems. So far the US legislature has blocked funding for initiatives to develop new weapons.


http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jid/jid051013_1_n.shtml

[digi-democracy]

Sounds like bunker busting nukes. Interesting concept and probably well into development. Thanks for the link.

[admin]

I can't see usa even using bunker buster nukes on even afghanistan! it will come into too much international scrutiny.

[Jordan]

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3151877

Funds to develop bunker buster N-bomb scrapped


WASHINGTON - Funding for researching the nuclear bunker buster will be scrapped in favor of more conventional weapons, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., announced Tuesday, curtailing fears from some Utah sectors that continued research on the bomb could lead to it being tested near the Four Corners area.
Domenici said Tuesday night in a statement that money for continued study of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator had been scrapped as part of negotiations over funding a bill for the Department of Energy.
"The focus will now be with the Defense Department and its research to earth penetrating technology using conventional weaponry," Domenici, who has been a supporter of the nuclear bunker buster, said in a statement.
Negotiators working on the bill tossed the $4 million provision to continue the research, a sigh of relief for downwinders and environmentalists worried that more study could lead to testing the weapon on U.S. soil.
"We hope this signifies a long-term commitment to avoid a nuclear catastrophe and the creation of a second-generation of downwinders," said Vanessa Pierce, program director of the advocacy group, Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.
The House had approved its version of the bill without funding for the program, but the Senate approved the funding, a sticking point for those negotiating the final version.

The move to remove the funding comes at the request of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which has been the driving force behind the bunker buster. It is unclear why the chief proponent of the funding withdrew its request.
This is the second year the funding has been dropped from the bill during negotiations.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, praised the decision.
"It's great news for everybody in Utah," Matheson said. "A new nuclear weapon means more nuclear weapon tests and I don't think we ever want to do down that road again."
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said through a spokesman late Tuesday that he has always voted to find the best way to "deal with these deeply buried bunkers" and if the National Nuclear Security Administration "believes this can be accomplished through conventional weapons, all the better."