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Title: US Modernizes Nuclear Arsenal With Smaller, Precision-Guided Atomic Weapons
Source:
NYTimes via Slashdot
URL Source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/0 ... recision-guided-atomic-weapons
Published: Jan 14, 2016
Author: Â
Post Date: 2016-01-14 06:33:03 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 2039
Comments: 33
And some say that's the problem. The Federation of American Scientists argues that the high accuracy and low destructive settings means military commanders might press to use the bomb in an attack, knowing the radioactive fallout and collateral damage would be limited. Increasing the accuracy also broadens the type of targets that the B61 can be used to attack. Some say that a new nuclear tipped cruise missile under development might sway a future president to contemplate "limited nuclear war." Worse yet, because the missile comes in nuclear and non-nuclear varieties, a foe under attack might assume the worst and overreact, initiating nuclear war. In a recent interview, General James Cartwright, a retired four-star general who last served as the eighth Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the overall modernization plan might change how military commanders looked at the risks of using nuclear weapons. "What if I bring real precision to these weapons?" says Cartwright. "Does it make them more usable? It could be." Poster Comment: A post based on a NYTimes article. NYTimes: As U.S. Modernizes Nuclear Weapons, ‘Smaller’ Leaves Some Uneasy The NY Times reports that the Pentagon has been developing the B61 Model 12, the nation's first precision-guided atom bomb. Adapted from an older weapon, the Model 12 was designed with problems like North Korea in mind: Its computer brain and four maneuverable fins let it zero in on deeply buried targets like testing tunnels and weapon sites and its yield can be dialed up or down depending on the target, to minimize collateral damage. The B61 Model 12 flight-tested last year in Nevada and is the first of five new warhead types planned as part of an atomic revitalization estimated to cost up to $1 trillion over three decades. As a family, the weapons and their delivery systems move toward the small, the stealthy and the precise.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 31.
#1. To: TooConservative (#0)
You have to wonder if they didn't have Israel in mind when they designed it...
It didn't seem like huge news to me that they retrofitted an old dumb-bomb with some guidance. We did it to plenty of other dumb-bomb designs already. The libs are worried that the Joint Chiefs will come to the prez and say, "Yeah, but it's just a micro-nuke. It's not a nuke-nuke. It's just kind of nukish, not a real nuke.".
Libs should be happy, because libs are supposed to support progress. Mini nukes, fast and self-maneuverable, perhaps installed on long range drones is the way of the future. As technology matures and becomes ubiquitous almost every country will be able to have them. The more the merrier and money well spent!
Wow, you could have worked for Atoms For Peace back in the day. We did start the proliferation in all the key countries like India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, etc. Nukes for all!
I live in a nuclear free zone. So I'm safe.
Where, pray tell? If in the US, you're not safe as long as we're doing everything we can to enrage and provoke a billion towelheads. Nobody is, not even the one precent that think their money will always save them.
That line is pure militant towelhead agitprop, -- and you've swallowed it, hook and sinker, poor sod..
No, it's exactly what we do. We had NO Ayrab problem before it started. NONE. Now its all you hear about. It's a totaly sick, needless, avoidable, STUPID situation.
Like before they took hostages. I know they are not Arab but it is Muslims that are the problem not Arabs.
They never took hostages before we started bedeviling them. Never.
Those Americans kidnapped into slavery and held for ransom by the Barbary pirates might have a different point of view on the matter.
#32. To: nativist nationalist, NeoconsNailedAgain (#31)
Slavery was a norm those days.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestIts computer brain and four maneuverable fins let it zero in on deeply buried targets like testing tunnels and weapon sites and its yield can be dialed up or down depending on the target, to minimize collateral damage.
#2. To: CZ82 (#1)
#3. To: TooConservative, CZ82 (#2)
The libs are worried that the Joint Chiefs will come to the prez and say, "Yeah, but it's just a micro-nuke. It's not a nuke-nuke. It's just kind of nukish, not a real nuke.".
#5. To: A Pole (#3)
As technology matures and becomes ubiquitous almost every country will be able to have them. The more the merrier and money well spent!
This proliferation is Really Bad except when we are doing it.
Atoms for Peace created the ideological background for the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, but also gave political cover for the U.S. nuclear weapons build-up, and the backdrop to the Cold War arms race. Under Atoms for Peace related programs the U.S. exported over 25 tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to 30 countries, mostly to fuel research reactors, which is now regarded as a proliferation and terrorism risk. The Soviet Union also exported over 11 tons of HEU under a similar program.[8]
#11. To: TooConservative (#5)
#17. To: misterwhite (#11)
#24. To: NeoconsNailedAgain, Y'ALL (#17)
--- we're doing everything we can to enrage and provoke a billion towelheads. ----- NeoconsNailedAgain
#25. To: tpaine (#24)
#26. To: NeoconsNailedAgain (#25)
We had NO Ayrab problem before it started.
#28. To: A K A Stone (#26)
#31. To: NeoconsNailedAgain (#28)
They never took hostages before we started bedeviling them. Never.
Replies to Comment # 31. Those Americans kidnapped into slavery
End Trace Mode for Comment # 31.
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