Congress Spars over Nuclear Spending

On the radar: Tea partiers for more spending; Consensus on CMRR cut; HASC tells Navy to buy more subs; Missile defense and Rep. Turner’s mark; North Korea’s missile mock-ups; Funding without ignition, and Missile defense heads east.

April 26, 2012 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke and Mary Kaszynski

GOP letter on nuke spending - 12 GOP senators wrote a letter to the president asking for increased spending on nuclear weapons programs - particularly the CMRR facility at Los Alamos - while expressing their skepticism of New START. Full letter (pdf) from Sens. Ayotte, Hoeven, Johnson, Boozman, Blunt, Portman, Rubio, Toomey, Paul, Coats, Moran, and Lee. http://owl.li/axfu2

--Signers by the numbers: Senators on the letter who voted for New START: 0 of 12; Freshmen GOP senators who were not in Congress to vote on New START: 12 of 12. SASC members: 2. SFRC members: 2. Appropriators: 4.

--Senators with nuclear weapons bases in their states: 2. Sen. Blunt (R-Whiteman AFB) and Sen. Hoeven (R-Minot AFB).

Quote - “Having more nuclear weapons doesn’t mean we are “winning” — or will even succeed in deterring others from pursuing them. It merely reflects that our strategy is ill-suited to our times.” Lt. Gen. Dirk Jameson (ret.) on deterrence requirements and nuclear reductions. http://owl.li/axfvH

Bipartisan support for CMRR cut - Congress members against nuclear spending cuts are in the minority. The (Republican-led) Energy and Water House appropriators supported the president’s cut to CMRR in their markup of the 2013 funding bill.

--“That signifies a broad consensus among the serious players on national security in Congress,” said Greg Mello. John Fleck of The Albuquerque Journal has the story (behind a paywall). http://owl.li/axfy6

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WaPo front page - “Israeli military chief: Iran will not build nuclear bomb” by Karin Brulliard and Joby Warrick. http://owl.li/axfzL

HASC: 10 nuclear subs isn’t enough - The planned two-year delay in SSBN(X) procurement means the number of nuclear subs will dip to 10 in the 2030s. The Navy says that’s a manageable risk; HASC members disagree.

-- “[HASC is] working on legislative language that would prohibit the fleet from having fewer than 12 ballistic-missile submarines in service, which would require the service either to keep its current Ohio-class SSBNs in service longer than planned or accelerate the development of an extremely expensive replacement.” Sydney Freedberg reports for AOL Defense. http://owl.li/axflW

Tweet - @Cirincione: “Same people who say we shouldn't reduce nukes to arbitrary number want to keep us at an arbitrary 12 subs.”

Rep. Turner on BMD plus ups - Outlining his subcommittee’s markup of the NDAA, Rep. Turner (R-OH) advocates greater spending on national missile defense systems, a new site on the East Coast, and seeking greater financial support from European allies for the EPAA. Read the full op-ed in Roll Call. http://owl.li/axfok

--Interesting: The Budget Control Act is only mentioned in the op-ed when arguing against spending money on the administration-backed European Phased Adaptive Approach. When advocating greater spending on national missile defense, fiscal responsibility gets no mention.

Analysis of HASC marks - Kingston Reif has a detailed analysis of the dollars and delays in the defense bill markup over at Nukes of Hazard. http://owl.li/axfjO

North Korea’s fake missiles - For the last week, missile experts have noted that the missiles North Korea trotted out in a recent parade were fakes. Says Ted Postol, “I believe that these missiles are not only mock-ups, but they are very unlikely to be actual mock-ups of any missiles in design.” Eric Talmadge of AP has a roundup of prominent experts analyzing about Pyongyang’s “dog and pony show.” http://owl.li/axfhy

Time to ratify the test ban treaty - “A recent report removes all of the legitimate scientific objections to ratifying the agreement.” Lawrence Krauss in Slate. http://owl.li/axfg1

NIF failures and funding - “Despite being $6 billion over budget and still not achieving ignition, [Lawrence Livermore National Lab's National Ignition Facility] continues to be funded,” writes an LTE to the Oakland Tribune. “Will NIF ever achieve its goal of ignition? Will it continue to be funded despite its failure?” http://owl.li/axfds

BMD to the Jersey shore - The HASC markup of the defense authorization bill requires the Missile Defense Agency to deploy a missile defense site on the East Coast to counter Iranian missile threats no later than 2015.

--Small problem: Tehran doesn’t have a missile that can reach the East Coast, the Pentagon has other missile defense plans for countering Iran, and U.S. missile defense systems have abysmal testing records. Noah Shachtman at Danger Room has the story. http://owl.li/axfq0