North Korea Vows Nuclear Test
October 3, 2006 :: Reuters :: News
North Korea said today that it will soon conduct its first-ever nuclear test, reports Reuters. According to a statement from North Korea’s foreign ministry, which was broadcast on the official KCNA news agency, “the U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defense.” The statement added, however, that North Korea would never be the first to use nuclear weapons, and would “do its utmost to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula and give impetus to the world-wide nuclear disarmament and the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons.” Analysts say that North Korea probably has enough fissile material to produce six to eight nuclear bombs, but does not yet have the technology to make one small enough to mount on a long range ballistic missile. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Testing - Foreign, Nuclear Weapons, North Korea
Russia Threatens Eastern Europe With Nuclear Strikes
September 22, 2006 :: Czech News Agency :: News
Russia could use tactical nuclear weapons to defeat U.S. missile defenses in Eastern Europe, reports the Russian daily Izvestiya. The article quotes Major-General Vladimir Belous of the Center of International Security, who stated: “By approaching Russia’s borders, the Americans are seeking to achieve their main objective: intercepting our strategic missiles at the early stage of their trajectory, when they are most vulnerable.” Alexandr Pikayev, a defense analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of World Economy and International Relations, went a step further, warning that “security cannot be built in the current world to the detriment of others” and that “the location of defense missiles will necessarily lead to the appearance of programs aimed at them.” He further noted that, “According to our military doctrine, Russia has reserved the right of preventive strikes, including those with the use of tactical nuclear weapons, against the objects that represent a threat to us.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Nuclear Weapons, Russia
Prime Minister: Japan Should Consider Nuclear Weapons
September 7, 2006 :: Japan Times :: News
Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said Tuesday that Japan should consider developing nuclear weapons. “There are countries with nuclear weapons in Japan’s vicinity,” Nakasone said. “We are currently dependent on U.S. nuclear weapons [as a deterrent], but it is not necessarily known whether the U.S. attitude will continue.” He conceded, however, that the nuclear option should come only after Japan makes efforts to reinforce the global nonproliferation regime: “The first priority is to keep being a nuclear-free state, and the second is to reinforce the system under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.” Nakasone was prime minister from 1982 to 1987, and retired from the Diet in 2003. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Japan, Nuclear Weapons
Baluyevsky: U.S. Missile Defense Could Spark Arms Race
September 7, 2006 :: AFP :: Analysis
General Yuri Baluyevsky, Russia’s Chief of Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister, has delivered another op-ed column, this time in the Polish daily Dziennik on September 6. Baluyevsky wrote, “Deploying the large-scale U.S. anti-missile shield threatens to spark a new arms race,” adding that Washington’s intention to base some of the anti-missile shield in central Europe was of particular concern. “We are firmly convinced that, if the U.S. project is carried out, it could lead to the deployment near the Russian border of systems which threaten to upset the strategic balance in weapons positioning,” Baluyevsky noted.
Baluyevsky’s previous article in the Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier on July 26 criticized the U.S. defensive posture in a similar fashion, claiming that “the world is essentially back to square one—that latter being the situation of America’s nuclear monopoly of the 1940s.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Analysis, Nuclear Weapons, Russia
U.S. Conducts Subcritical Nuclear Test
September 7, 2006 :: AP :: News
Scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico conducted a subcritical nuclear test at the Nevada desert proving ground on August 30, according to a statement by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Subcritical tests involve the detonation of explosives around radioactive material, but are designed not to reach the “critical mass” necessary for a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. Such experiments are essential to maintaining the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The August 30 test, dubbed Unicorn, involved a detonation in a vault some 600 feet below the surface of the 1,375-square-mile federal reservation. No radioactivity was released and no damage was reported from the experiment. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Nuclear Weapons, Testing - American
U.S. Discusses Ballistic Missile Conversion with Russia
September 4, 2006 :: U.S. Department of State :: News
At their recent meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska, on August 27, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov discussed the Bush administration plan to arm Trident-2 ballistic missiles deployed on submarines with conventional, as opposed to nuclear weapons, reports the U.S. Department of State. The move would allow for rapid, pre-emptive strikes against rogue nations or terrorist organizations anywhere in the world. At the meeting, Rumsfeld suggested that Russia consider pursuing missile conversions as well. “If either of our countries or our friends and allies were threatened at some number of years into the future with a weapon of mass destruction or a capability that was that lethal, I think any president, whether of Russia or the United States, would like to have available a conventional weapon that could attack that party quickly and accurately and precisely and not feel that the only thing they had might be a nuclear weapon which they would not want to use,” he said. Ivanov noted his concern that such launches could be mistaken for a pre-emptive nuclear attack, potentially leading to a retaliatory strike. He stated that this criticism was a matter of particular concern for the Russian government and would require further discussions before Russia would support the proposal or convert any of its missiles. “These are preliminary plans,” the Defense Minister stressed, “I cannot announce right now that Russia will join such [an] initiative right now.”
The discussions between Rumsfeld and Ivanov follow the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee’s decision on July 20 to cut all but $5 million of the $127 million in initial funding for the Navy’s Conventional Trident Modification Program. In a report accompanying the defense appropriation bills, the Senate Appropriations Committee wrote its belief that “fundamental issues about the use of this weapon must be addressed prior to investing in this effort.” It added: “It is not clear that other potentially less provocative alternatives, such as land and air-based options, have been considered.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Nuclear Weapons, Policy, Russia
Israel Buys Upgraded Nuclear-Capable Submarines
August 23, 2006 :: AFP :: News
Israel has signed a contract with Germany to buy two submarines capable of carrying nuclear weapons, reports the AFP. The new Dolphin-class submarines, called U212s, will be assembled by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG in Germany, and will be bought by Israel for $1.27 billion, a third of which will be financed by the German government. The state-of-the-art submarines will be fitted with an advanced propulsion system allowing them to remain underwater far longer than submarines already in use by the Israeli navy. Each U212 carries a crew of 35, has a range of 4,500 kilometers (2,810 miles), and can launch cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads. The report of the purchase came one day after Rafi Eitan, an Israeli cabinet minister, warned that Israel should prepare for a ballistic missile attack by Iran. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Israel, Nuclear Weapons, Sea-Based Systems
North Korea May Be Preparing for Nuclear Test
August 17, 2006 :: ABC News :: News
ABC News reports that North Korea may be preparing an underground nuclear test. According to a senior U.S. military official, “suspicious vehicle movement” has been observed at a suspected North Korean test site. The activity includes the unloading of large reels of cable outside an underground facility called Pungyee-yok in northeast North Korea. Such cables could be used to connect an underground test site to outside observation equipment. “It is the view of the intelligence community that a test is real possibility,” said a senior State Department official quoted by ABC News. North Korea is believed to have enough nuclear material to build as many as a dozen nuclear bombs, although it has never tested one. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons
Pentagon Studies “Remediation” System to Defend Satellites
August 14, 2006 :: UPI :: News
The Pentagon is researching a new system to defend U.S. satellites from high-altitude nuclear detonations and solar storms. The “radiation belt remediation” system, as it is known, would protect low-orbiting satellites from being damaged by charged particles in unusually intense radiation belts created by high-altitude nuclear explosions or solar storms. The “remediation” system would generate very low frequency radio waves to flush particles from the radiation belts and dump them into the upper atmosphere over one or several days. The project is being pursued by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Some scientists, however, have noted that the “remediation” system could cause communication blackouts among high frequency radio transmissions and GPS navigation signals. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Weapons, Nuclear Weapons, Space-Based Systems
Pakistan Establishes Three Strategic Commands
August 9, 2006 :: Kyodo :: News
Kyodo reports that Pakistan has set up three strategic commands in its armed forces equipped with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and capable of retaliating against any first nuclear strike by India. According to Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for the Indian Defense Ministry, the three commands are located within the army, air force, and navy. The army command, established in 2003 under Lieutenant General Ghulum Mustafa, forms the backbone of Pakistan’s combined strategic force. It includes up to 100 facilities, mostly underground, where Pakistan’s medium-range Shaheen and long-range Ghauri missiles are kept. Sultan refused to divulge the number of people involved in the storing, security, deployment, and operation of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, although Kyodo quotes independent sources as saying that the army’s strategic force alone includes nearly 6,000 people. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Nuclear Weapons, Pakistan
» Missile details: Ghauri-3, Hatf 6
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