Unmanned and nuclear

[Administrator]

In the wake of the August 2007 incident in which six air-launched cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were mistakenly flown from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., and the August 2006 incident — acknowledged in March 2008 — that saw top-secret nuclear fuses mistakenly shipped to Taiwan as battery packs for UH-1 Huey helicopters, Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. Gates also formed a task force to study nuclear weapons management, which led to former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger’s publication of the “Report of the Secretary of Defense Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management: The Air Force Nuclear Mission.” The report, along with other recent Pentagon publications, played a role in the creation of Global Strike Command — a major command dedicated to the nuclear mission.

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2009/06/4040349

[bobbymike]

I am firmly in the modernization camp. There is currently NO reason or rationale to reduce below Moscow Treaty or SORT limits on nuclear arms. Further disarmament will not make us safer and may, in fact, endanger us.

Does anyone find it alarmingly coincidental that everytime Obama mentions disarmament, non-proliferation, etc. the Iranians or North Koreans test something like a missile or nuke? You would think this is a message even the disarmament crowd would understand.

I would build the RRW, replace the MMIII, build the next generation bomber, develop and deploy conventional prompt global strike and modernize the nuclear weapons infrastructure. It would include robust funding for advanced concepts. As a nation we need to know what “physics” is possilbe to avoid strategic surprise.