Russia Pursuing Destabilizing New ICBM

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today: Wednesday, July 20, 2011.

New ICBM Planned in Russia: Report - Global Security Newswire [link]

• Russia's Defense Ministry is completing the initial design for a new liquid-fuel, 15-warhead ICBM capable of hitting nearly any location in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Moscow has provided $27.5 billion for preparation of the new nuclear-tipped ICBM, the newspaper reported.
• Fielding of the weapon is scheduled to start in nine years, Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted the report as saying.

NATO’s Posture Review and Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons - Hans Kristensen’s Prepared Remarks for a Brookings Panel on NATO Nuclear Policy[link]

• NATO’s new Strategic Concept endorse additional reductions in non-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe. The issue is not whether the nuclear posture in Europe should be reduced but how and under what conditions.
• It would be irresponsible for the Alliance to continue to waste precious resources on maintaining a forward deployment of nonIstrategic nuclear weapons for a mission that is no longer essential to the security of the alliance.
• [NATO’s posture review] must take the bold and visionary decision to complete the withdrawal of nonIstrategic nuclear weapons from Europe and create a security architecture that has to do with today’s threats rather than those of yesterday.

America's Intelligence Denial on Iran - Fred Fleitz in Wall Street Journal [link]

• [The intelligence community] is unwilling to conduct a proper assessment of the Iranian nuclear issue.
• I read the February 2011 Iran NIE while on the staff of the House Intelligence Committee. I believe it was poorly written and little improvement over the 2007 version.
• Intelligence managers since then have discouraged provocative analytic conclusions, and any analysis that could be used to justify military action against rogue states like Iran.

The Nuclear Cut at the Deficit - Ben Loehrke in Ploughshares Blog [link]

• This week, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) … proposed saving $79 billion by cutting the nuclear arsenal to roughly 1,220 deployed nuclear warheads … This would be the smallest number of U.S. nuclear warheads since 1955.
• His proposal could help put the United States on a better fiscal and strategic footing by getting greater savings out of deeper defense cuts … By suggesting moving to a nuclear arsenal of 1,200 strategic warheads, Sen. Coburn is also aligning his budget principles with the advice of experts who believe the U.S. can meet its security needs and those of its allies with a smaller nuclear force.
• Sen. Coburn’s proposal … could help bring attention to an area of the defense budget that makes sense to cut, and spur pundits and policy wonks into talking about how nuclear cuts make fiscal and strategic sense. For that purpose, it’s a smart move. Now it’s time to flesh out the budget details.

ASEAN wooing nuclear powers on disarmament push - Mustaqim Adamrah in The Jakarta Post [link]

• ASEAN [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] is set to let the ball roll on having five nuclear weapon states sign the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ) Treaty protocols after reaching a consensus on the issue.
• ASEAN will bring four main elements to the 2007-2012 plan of action as its member states’ common reference for future consultation with the nuclear weapon states … [those] four discussion points endorsed during that meeting were, compliance with the undertaking of the SEANWFZ Treaty, accession by nuclear weapon states, cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other partners and the institution arrangement.
• The four discussion points would be brought before the nuclear weapon states at the technical level in the first week of August.