Massive Bomber Contract Awarded to Northrop Grumman

Taxpayers’ trillion dollar burden - “The U.S. Air Force announcement Tuesday that it has chosen Northrop Grumman to build the Long-Range Strike Bomber commits the U.S taxpayer to a trillion-dollar burden,” reports Charles Tiefer for Forbes. “The contract is for $800 million per plane – or $80 billion for the whole fleet. Piece by piece, the Department of Defense (DoD) is contracting for an entirely new Cold War ‘strategic triad.’”

--During the Cold War, “the government needed – and paid enormously for – a strategic triad of nuclear bombers, nuclear submarines, and nuclear missiles to threaten the Soviet Union if necessary with nuclear retaliation. It seemed for some decades that… the Cold War was over. But, today, we are doing it again – even though no one knows how to pay for it all… Let’s face it, we are buying the LRS-B just in contemplation of the Cold War, part II.” Get the full story here. http://onforb.es/1GyBVsJ

See also : “Northrop's deal to build new stealth bomber may create thousands of jobs in Southland,” by Melody Petersen and W.J. Hennigan for Los Angeles Times. http://lat.ms/1MgWJRJ

Iran’s nuclear musings - “Iran considered pursuing a nuclear deterrent when it began its nuclear program in the 1980s, during an eight-year war with Iraq, a former president has been quoted as saying,” reports Sam Wilkin for Reuters. Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's comments comes at a sensitive moment, as Iran implements an agreement reached with world powers in July aimed at curbing its nuclear program, to allay Western fears it was trying to build an atomic bomb.”

--“The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, is investigating whether Iran's nuclear program ever had a military application. It is due to issue a report by Dec. 15… ‘When we first began, we were at war and we sought to have that possibility for the day that the enemy might use a nuclear weapon. That was the thinking. But it never became real,’” Rafsanjani said in the interview Tuesday. Read the full story here. http://reut.rs/1GyesIc

Tweet - @BulletinAtomic: Time for a different kind of US-Russian arms control http://ow.ly/TXxsr

Exiled from paradise - “Bikini’s former residents watched a mushroom cloud form over the place that had been their home. Now it was a bomb site, shrouded in toxic nuclear fallout that would render [Bikini Atoll] uninhabitable,” writes Sarah Kaplan. The Bikini islanders didn’t know that yet; they had agreed to a series of nuclear tests on their islands believing they would be able to return as soon as the experiments ended... Now rising seas and brutal storms brought on by climate change have rendered their new homes uninhabitable.”

--“On Wednesday, Marshallese Foreign Minister Tony de Brum will meet with members of Congress and ask for a change in the terms of the fund that was set up to help Bikini islanders resettle. Currently, the fund can only be used to help them buy property in the Marshall Islands, but they’re giving up on the Pacific entirely. They want to come to the U.S. instead.” Read the full story at The Washington Post here. http://wapo.st/1P7B2Zt

Tweet - @NuclearWeapons1: Letters: Either we have a future without nuclear weapons, or no future at all - Herald Scotland dlvr.it/CZy4LM

Nuclear bases under heightened guard - “The United States has upgraded the security at its two largest overseas nuclear weapons bases, Incirlik Air Base in Turkey and Aviano Air Base in Italy. Incirlik is undergoing a particularly extensive upgrade, a move connected to its vulnerable location close to the Syrian border,” writes Elizabeth Braw. ‘They didn’t use to have the special double-fence security perimeter with sensors and the patrol road around the nuclear weapons vaults,’ explains Hans Kristensen, a nuclear expert at the Federation of American Scientist.”

--“Incirlik’s growing role in the fight against ISIS makes it a more prominent target for counterattacks… At Incirlik, even the most sophisticated upgrades may not warrant the risk of hosting nuclear weapons so close to volatile areas. But with strategic thinking born during the Cold War dictating that backing down from nuclear weapons signals weakness, Turkey’s government prefers to keep its American warheads.” Read the full story at World Affairs here. http://bit.ly/1kdQnfa

Tweet - @ArmsControlNow: New blog post: Putting the Horse Before the Cart: Resuming Talks with #NorthKorea bit.ly/1We7pWG

Can Pakistan’s nukes really deter war? - “Last week, behind closed doors, the US held out a stark message to Pakistan’s visiting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. India’s government, he was warned, was almost certain to authorise strikes against jihadist infrastructure inside Pakistan in the event of a mass-casualty terrorist strike. Had terrorists succeeded in blowing up a passenger train in Gurdaspur earlier this summer, war might well have been the outcome,” writes Praveen Swami for the Indian Express.

--“In 1962, Exercise Fallex concluded that 10-15 million Germans would be slaughtered in a limited nuclear war... In 1972, the Soviet general staff completed the last of a series of exercises simulating a European nuclear war… Eight million dead, 85 per cent of Soviet industrial capacity wiped out, the army degraded by a factor of 1,000… For Pakistan, there are obvious lessons here. Its nuclear weapons may not deter Indian retaliation — and may not succeed in ending a conventional war, should one begin.” Get the full story here. http://bit.ly/1P3RUQN

Tweet - @tkassenova: The Long View: How Argentina and Brazil Stepped Back from a Nuclear Race | Americas Quarterly http://bit.ly/1M3mqcG

Correction - In Tuesday’s edition we ran a Sputnik article under the headline “Your bunker won’t save you”. The article quoted Dr. Stoyan Sarg erroneously identifying the B61-12 as a missile that could reach Moscow in only 6 minutes. The B61-12 is a gravity bomb that could not reach Moscow unless delivered by an aircraft (e.g. F-16 going full speed would take approximately one hour to reach Moscow from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey). We apologize for the oversight. If you would like to learn more about B61-12 visit: http://bit.ly/1N86RBf.

Quick Hits:

--“The politics of nuclear technology, from Hiroshima to Iran,” by Jessica Conditt for Engadget. http://engt.co/1Wiq6On

--“Lawmakers fret about potential terrorist attacks at US ports,” by Keith Laing for The Hill. http://bit.ly/1H9aNew

--“Nukes Are Not For War,” by Sushant Singh for The Indian Express. http://bit.ly/1P05sy5

--“Thinking Beyond Russia: Can America Succeed in the New Nuclear Age?”, by Michael Auslin for The National Interest. http://bit.ly/1KHOe0K

Events:

--“Think Nuclear-Free Symposium! The Nuclear-Free Future Award”, sponsored by Green Cross International and the Heinrich Böll Foundation Washington. Thursday, October 29th from 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM at Goethe-Institut Washington, 812 7th St. NW, Washington, DC. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1P0wMfy

--“Reliving History: A Retrospective Trident”, featuring Rebecca Hersman and Franklin Miller. Wednesday, November 4th from 5:00 - 7:30 PM at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Second Floor B Room, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, DC. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1VUkedS

--“Nuclear Detonation Effects in an Urban Area”, featuring John Mercier. Tuesday, November 10th from 12:00 - 1:30 PM at the Department of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech Research Center, 900 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, VA. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1KXP39b

--“Stimson Debate: Nuclear Weapons and International Stability”, featuring Ward Wilson and Elbridge Colby. Thursday, November 12th from 12:30 - 1:30 PM at the Stimson Center, 8th Floor, 1211 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1GGdWaM

Dessert:

In case you missed it - “Kim Jong-un has visited a new science and technology centre in the North Korean capital Pyongyang... The atom-shaped centre on the Ssuk islet by the river Taedong includes an earthquake experience room, virtual science laboratory and reading areas and is a reminder of North Korea's defiance amid concerns about its nuclear weapons programme… Its nuclear weapons are being improved ‘in quality and quantity,’ an official quoted by KCNA said.” Get the full article at Sky News here. http://bit.ly/1XBsDQR