Current Nuclear Weapons Development

I thought it was the foam that holds the "physics package" in position inside the bomb casing?
 
Josh_TN said:
That's a rather large number of undeployed launchers for the Russians. I wonder what fills that category? SSBNs? Also the Russian force must be pretty heavily MIRV'd to still reach a similar level of warheads. The US has a pretty low level of this - 400 MMIIIs with single warheads and an average of just ~4 warheads per Trident.

Does anyone know if AGM-86s count as individual deployed strategic warheads or are they part of the 'one warhead per bomber' arrangement?
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Retired silos, retired TELs, retired SSBNs all scheduled to be scrapped and new SSBNs stills working up. Russia has been replacing single warhead Topols with MIRVed Yars. So yes most of Russia's force is probably MIRVed.

In New START one bomber equals one warhead, no matter now many missiles it carries.
 
From Inside Defense pay site

Global Strike Command: Nuclear triad modernization still needed in post-COVID world
The potential long-term budget implications of the novel coronavirus pandemic are beginning to shape thinking about what weapon system programs to defend should military spending face dramatic reductions, according to the top Air Force general in charge of Global Strike Command
———————————————————-
1) Close the economy down
2) Pump $2.2 trillion (plus more coming) of new spending to “rescue” economy we shut down
3) Cut future key defense program that represent a very small percentage of government spending to “save” money
 
thehill.com

Senate Armed Services shelves ‘paper hearing’ plans

The Senate Armed Services Committee has put its plan to hold “paper hearings” during the coronavirus crisis on ice after one hearing.“When the committee first laid out the concept of ‘paper hearing…
thehill.com thehill.com

The committee had also planned to hold a paper hearing on the Energy Department’s nuclear budget Thursday. But late Wednesday it was postponed due, the panel said Thursday, to the decision to put the paper hearings in general on hold.

“The issues associated with production of nuclear warheads remains central to modernization of the nuclear triad, and as such, the committee expects to address these critical questions in the future,” Hernandez said.
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Sorry subscription required but headline has the gist

www.wsj.com

WSJ News Exclusive | Possible Chinese Nuclear Testing Stirs U.S. Concern

China might be secretly conducting nuclear tests with very low explosive power despite Beijing’s assertions that it is strictly adhering to an international accord banning all nuclear tests, according to a new arms-control report to be made public by the State Department.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com
 
The Test Ban treaties have been teetering on the edge for quite some time now, even before it was revealed that Russia had compromised much of the monitoring network.
 
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If they did I wonder if its posturing to prevent in their minds a preemptive strike.
 
rooster said:
If they did I wonder if its posturing to prevent in their minds a preemptive strike.
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You always have to consider the games that go on in the black world. We have no idea what kind of toys the US or China may use to poke and prod one another.
 
rooster said:
If they did I wonder if its posturing to prevent in their minds a preemptive strike.
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I would ask what type of preemptive strike, by whom, and on what basis. but that’s drifting way off topic - as was your comment.
 
Unfortunately not a lot of apparent sincerity or trustworthiness to be found from the current administrations of Russia, China or the US at the moment...
 
In one of those 3, a real election will test whether the majority would agree with your opinion. Unless you wish to believe there is no difference there either.
 
Grey Havoc said:
Somehow I doubt his sincerity here...
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New START works for the Russians. They would be hard pressed to keep up with the US if it decides to heavily MIRV existing missiles. The US could pretty easily introduce an additional thousand W76 and nearly as many W78s without building a single new launch platform. The Russians also enjoy a much larger tac nuke inventory that is unregulated. I suspect Putin honestly has no interest in leaving the treaty, though the current administration has voiced a desire to leave and most certainly will if there is a second term.
 
Josh_TN said:
They would be hard pressed to keep up with the US if it decides to heavily MIRV existing missiles. The US could pretty easily introduce an additional thousand W76 and nearly as many W78s without building a single new launch platform.
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Given the state of disrepair of America's industrial infrastructure, would they be actually able to do any of that?
 
These would be warheads in storage mated to already deployed missiles, with the addition of 50 MM3s that were withdrawn for New START. I think it is an achievable goal, though personally I’m in favor of renewing START.
 
Wow, Russian hypocrisy knows no bounds. As much as I disagree with the current administration on most issues, I'm glad the decision was made to go forward with B-61 mod 12 and deploy W76 mod 2.
 
news.usni.org

Report to Congress on Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons - USNI News

The following is the May 4, 2020 Congressional Research Service report, Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons. From the report Recent debates about U.S. nuclear weapons have questioned what role weapons with shorter ranges and lower yields can play in addressing emerging threats in Europe and Asia. These...
news.usni.org news.usni.org
 
Friday nuke news

www.airforcemag.com

Esper’s Approach to Flat Budgets Mirrors USAF, Keeps Nukes a Priority | Air & Space Forces Magazine

Esper’s spending priorities under expected flat budgets mirror USAF's in the fiscal 2021 budget: sacrifice legacy hardware to pay for modernization.
www.airforcemag.com www.airforcemag.com

fox6now.com

Official: US must move ahead with nuclear weapons work

Articles and videos about Official: US must move ahead with nuclear weapons work on FOX6 News Milwaukee.
fox6now.com fox6now.com

China urged to expand nuclear arsenal to deter US warmongers - Global Times

www.globaltimes.cn www.globaltimes.cn

thehill.com

Caution: China’s nuclear strategy may be ‘nuclear thoughtlessness’

China was ‘born’ into a nuclear world that it didn’t control — with two superpowers when it was neither nuclear nor a superpower.
thehill.com thehill.com
 
New START will depend on the presidential election. Trump has made it clear he will withdraw; Biden has stated he would stay in it. The Russians seem willing to stay in the treaty if the US does. It seems rather pointless to withdraw from it when the US has no new delivery systems available for manufacture. There seems to be little reason to leave unless the Chinese very suddenly increase their production of warheads and delivery systems, or a new US ICBM/SLBM/nuclear capable bomber is in production that potentially exceeds the allowed launchers. By 2026 there may be B-21 production at least, and China might have significantly increased its stockpile, at which point a deployment of additional MIRVs to the existing launchers might be called for. ICBM/SLBM production seems like more of a 2030 timeframe.
 
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I wonder if Britain/US would have stayed in the Washington Naval Treaty if they had been fully aware of the cheating going on. Of course, for Britain/US, there would have been domestic supporters on both sides of the stay/leave divide right up to when the shooting started.
 
fredymac said:
I wonder if Britain/US would have stayed in the Washington Naval Treaty if they had been fully aware of the cheating going on. Of course, for Britain/US, there would have been domestic supporters on both sides of the stay/leave divide right up to when the shooting started.
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I wonder if they would have been more inclined to stay in the treaty if they had no ability to produce any warships until 1941?
 
sferrin said:
I thought it was the foam that holds the "physics package" in position inside the bomb casing?
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or it’s something that helps a watermelon turn a cylinder into a softball. Boom.
 
Josh_TN said:
I wonder if they would have been more inclined to stay in the treaty if they had no ability to produce any warships until 1941?
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Why? Does staying restrain the cheating or encourage the cheater? Are you going to threaten to leave if the cheating doesn't stop and then when it doesn't you still stay? Leaving at least forces you to be honest with reality.
 
fredymac said:
Josh_TN said:
I wonder if they would have been more inclined to stay in the treaty if they had no ability to produce any warships until 1941?
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Why? Does staying restrain the cheating or encourage the cheater? Are you going to threaten to leave if the cheating doesn't stop and then when it doesn't you still stay? Leaving at least forces you to be honest with reality.
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unless I felt the treaty was counter to my interests from the beginning, I’d probably want some kind of evidence that it was being broken before I left it, particularly if I had no ability to effectively respond.
 
Josh_TN said:
unless I felt the treaty was counter to my interests from the beginning, I’d probably want some kind of evidence that it was being broken before I left it, particularly if I had no ability to effectively respond.
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A treaty can be acceptable as written as long as both sides adhere to it. When one side cheats, it becomes an asymmetric advantage if the other side does nothing. Intelligence data is presented before congressional committees and someone biased in favor of treaties will be able to see if cheating is real.

Responding means you intend to counter which means you intend to violate the treaty. The proper way to do that is announce your reasons, follow the termination process, and do what is needed.

The worst course is to tolerate cheating. The cheater will easily presume you consent. The longer you wait, the more you get into the "can't respond" mentality.
 

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