{"id":127047,"date":"2019-02-04T12:01:10","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T12:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=127047"},"modified":"2019-02-11T11:25:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T11:25:15","slug":"us-nuclear-weapons-first-low-yield-warheads-roll-off-the-production-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/02\/us-nuclear-weapons-first-low-yield-warheads-roll-off-the-production-line\/","title":{"rendered":"US Nuclear Weapons: First Low-Yield Warheads Roll Off the Production Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

New type of weapon, ordered by Trump\u2019s nuclear posture review, could make violent response to conflict more likely, say experts.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Trump administration has argued the development of a low-yield weapon would make nuclear war less likely. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

28 Jan 2019 – <\/em>The US has begun making a new, low-yield nuclear warhead for its Trident<\/a> missiles that arms control advocates warn could lower the threshold for a nuclear confrontation.<\/p>\n

The National Nuclear Security Administration<\/a> (NNSA) announced in an email it had started manufacturing the weapon at its Pantex nuclear weapons plant in Texas, as ordered by Donald Trump\u2019s nuclear posture review<\/a> (NPR) last year.<\/p>\n

The NNSA said the first of the new warheads had come off the production line and that it was on schedule to deliver the first batch \u2013 an unspecified number referred to as \u201cinitial operational capability\u201d \u2013 before the end of September, according to the email, first sent in response to an enquiry from Exchange Monitor<\/a>, which covers the nuclear weapons complex.<\/p>\n

Read more: US to loosen nuclear weapons constraints and develop more ‘usable’ warheads<\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The new weapon, the W76-2, is a modification of the existing Trident warhead. Stephen Young, a senior Washington representative of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said its yield had most likely been cut by taking away one stage from the original two-stage, W76 thermonuclear device.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs best we can tell, the only requirement is to replace the existing secondary, or second stage, with a dummy version, which is what they do every time they test fly a missile,\u201d Young said, adding that the amount of tritium, a hydrogen isotope, may also be adjusted. The result would be to reduce its explosive power from 100 kilotons of TNT, to about five \u2013 approximately a third of the force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration<\/a> has argued the development of a low-yield weapon would make nuclear war less likely, by giving the US a more flexible deterrent. It would counter any enemy (particularly Russian) perception that the US would balk at using its own fearsome arsenal in response to a limited nuclear attack because its missiles were all in the hundreds of kilotons range and \u201ctoo big to use\u201d, because they would cause untold civilian casualties.<\/p>\n

Low-yield weapons \u201chelp ensure that potential adversaries perceive no possible advantage in limited nuclear escalation, making nuclear employment less likely\u201d, the 2018 nuclear posture review said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo what extent does this signal a new willingness on the part of the US to start using strategic nuclear weapons?\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\n— Hans Kristensen, Federation of American Scientists<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Many critics say that is an optimistic scenario that assumes there will be no miscalculation on the US side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many other scenarios, especially with a president who takes pride in his unpredictability and has literally asked: \u2018Why can\u2019t we use our nuclear weapons?<\/a>\u2019\u201d, Young said.<\/p>\n

Melissa Hanham of the One Earth Future foundation pointed out that adversaries would have no way of knowing if a full-force Trident was being fired at them, or its low-yield cousin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey all you nuclear powers out there. We\u2019re just going to trust that you recognize this is \u201cjust a little nuclear weapon\u201d and won\u2019t retaliate with all you\u2019ve got,\u201d Hanham wrote in a tweet<\/a>. \u201cRemember! The US only intends to nuke you \u201ca little bit.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n

Hans Kristensen, the director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists said the new warhead marked a sharp break from the Obama administration policy of making no new weapons or capabilities. He said it risked starting an arms race with Russia involving smaller nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo what extent does this signal a new willingness on the part of the US to start using strategic nuclear weapons in a tactical and very limited way early in a potential conflict?\u201d Kristensen asked. \u201cFrankly, mission creep is my greatest worry about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has been a spate of developments signalling that a new arms race is gathering pace. Vladimir Putin has unveiled a new generation of Russian weapons, and Russia\u2019s suspected development of an cruise missile banned under the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.<\/p>\n

Trump has declared he will take the US out of the treaty<\/a>, and the administration is expected to suspend compliance and serve six months\u2019 notice of withdrawal on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Trump nuclear weapons review expanded an ambitious modernisation plan already underway. It ordered work to start on a new sea-launched cruise missile and blurred the line between the use of conventional and nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

The NPR said the US could respond with nuclear weapons against \u201csignificant non-nuclear strategic attacks,\u201d including attacks on \u201ccivilian population or infrastructure\u201d. It also said the US would \u201cstrengthen the integration of nuclear and non-nuclear military planning\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is not inevitable that all of Trump\u2019s nuclear weapons plans will be pursued. Since the funds for the initial batch of warheads was approved, Democrats have taken over Congress, and are sceptical about their cost and purposes.<\/p>\n

Last week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office<\/a> issued a report projecting the nuclear weapons costs over the next decade as nearly a half trillion dollars, up 23% from the last estimate two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we need as many as they\u2019re talking about,\u201d Adam Smith, the new head of the House armed services committee, said in a C-Span interview<\/a>. \u201cI just don\u2019t think we can afford what the NPR is calling for and I don\u2019t think it is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nuclear weapons budget is likely to be an important battlefield in the struggle between Trump and congressional Democrats. The president is increasingly surrounding himself with Reagan-era nuclear hawks, including John Bolton, his national security adviser and who pushed for the INF to be jettisoned. Bolton\u2019s new deputy, Charles Kupperman, once argued<\/a> a nuclear war could be won \u201cin the classical sense\u201d if one side emerged the stronger, even if there were tens of millions of casualties.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters last week, former defence secretary William Perry, an arms control advocate, said he was less worried about the number of nuclear warheads left in the world than by the return of cold war talk about such weapons being \u201cusable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe belief that there might be tactical advantage using nuclear weapons \u2013 which I haven\u2019t heard that being openly discussed in the United States or in Russia for a good many years \u2013 is happening now in those countries which I think is extremely distressing,\u201d Perry said.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>That\u2019s a very dangerous belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28 Jan 2019 – The US has begun making a new, low-yield nuclear warhead for its Trident missiles that arms control advocates warn could lower the threshold for a nuclear confrontation. New type of weapon, ordered by Trump\u2019s nuclear posture review, could make violent response to conflict more likely, say experts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":127049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,65,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weapons-of-mass-destruction","category-anglo-america","category-militarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}