LGM-118A Peacekeeper missile system being tested at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. This is a long exposure photo showing the paths of the multiple re-entry vehicles deployed by the missile. One Peacekeeper can hold up to 10 nuclear warheads, each independently targeted. Were the warheads armed with a nuclear payload, each would carry with it the explosive power of twenty-five Hiroshima-sized weapons. Photo from Wikipedia.From The Atlantic:
President Obama plans to take a more active role in preparing America's nuclear weapons strategy, helping to ensure that the final document, due out next year, reflects his priorities, rather than just the institutional views of his government, administration officials said.
Mr. Obama was said to be unhappy when the Defense Department presented to him its decision to remove a long-range missile battery from Poland and a sophisticated radar system from the Czech Republic. Obama had little time to study the issue before the vagaries of the Pentagon's budget procedures forced his hand. Responding to concerns that the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) was being completed without enough input from his staff and from the State Department, Obama has decided to provide guidance directly, and plans to participate in several high-level meetings.
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My comment: Bottom line .... the Pentagon's hopes for renewed funding of a "Reliable Replacement Warhead" program are probably dead. In short, we will have to do with the nuclear weapons that we have.
But the paragraph in this article that caught my eye was the following:
Managing the aging stockpile doesn't necessarily imply a new warhead. Indeed, the administration will probably reject any attempts to fund warhead improvements and instead work on making sure that the delivery mechanisms, like missiles, are in top order. For example, vacuum tubes, constructed in the 1960s, might have to be replaced.
Vacuum tubes?!?!?! 1960s?!?!?!
What are these people thinking?
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