Nuclear Budgets Should be on the Table for Defense Cuts

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

Stories we're following today: Friday, May 20, 2011.

How -- and Where -- to Cut Defense - Michael O'Hanlon in Politico [link]

• How might the Obama plan be implemented? It will likely require across-the-board efforts...
• more base closures, cancellation of at least a few more troubled weapons systems and delays in others, perhaps some belt-tightening by nondeployed military personnel in areas like health care (since their current premiums are extremely low), consolidations of a few more military commands...
• and some efficiencies in nuclear weapons budgets.
  

Is The “Defense Review” for Real? - Gordon Adams in The Will and the Wallet [link]

• Secretary Gates, whose days at the Pentagon are numbered, has launched a “defense review” in response to the White House announcement that...would reduce the projected growth in defense investment by hundreds of billions of dollars.
• Given that resources are always constrained, the key will be defining “acceptable risks,” by truly examining whether all these missions are equally needed.
• The strategic nuclear mission is also in doubt. If the goal is to move our strategic forces toward zero over the next 10-20 years, buying a new long-range strategic bomber, nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, a next generation ICBM, and a submarine fleet the same size as the current one must be on the table.

Remarks by the President on the Middle East and North Africa [link]

Excerpt from the President's Speech at the State Department yesterday:

So far, Syria has followed its Iranian ally, seeking assistance from Tehran in the tactics of suppression. And this speaks to the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime, which says it stand for the rights of protesters abroad, yet represses its own people at home. Let’s remember that the first peaceful protests in the region were in the streets of Tehran, where the government brutalized women and men, and threw innocent people into jail. We still hear the chants echo from the rooftops of Tehran. The image of a young woman dying in the streets is still seared in our memory. And we will continue to insist that the Iranian people deserve their universal rights, and a government that does not smother their aspirations.

NNSA Expects to Determine UPF Costs at Oak Ridge's Y-12 Plant by 2013 - John Houtari in The Oak Ridger [link]

• The estimated cost will be based on a design that is 90 percent complete.
• Cost estimates for the 350,000-square-foot UPF have ranged between $4.2 billion and $6.5 billion.

New EU Sanctions Target Over 100 Iranian Firms - AFP [link]

• The European Union on Thursday agreed to sanction more than 100 Iranian companies, sharply expanding the number of firms hit by an assets freeze over Iran's disputed nuclear programme.
• "Many of the firms are fronts" set up in Europe and "the individuals targeted are essentially their managers", said an EU diplomat who asked not to be named.
• "The idea is to increase the pressure on Iran and to prevent the circumventing of existing sanctions," said another diplomat.

Saudi Arabian-U.S. Antimissile Talks Stress Iran Threat - Global Security Newswire [link]

• Saudi Arabia and the United States are in talks on establishing new measures to significantly strengthen the Middle Eastern nation's ability to counter Iranian missiles and aircraft.
• The Gulf power has pursued new equipment for countering..medium-range missiles as well as updates to its current Patriot antimissile systems.
• Washington and Riyadh are also collaborating on an effort to establish a highly trained unit charged with guarding key Saudi infrastructure and the country's future atomic facilities.