“My biggest worry is they will miscalculate our resolve…Any miscalculation could mean that we are drawn into conflict, and that would be a tragedy for the region and the world.”
Nuclear Weapons
“If they proceed and we get intelligence that they're proceeding in developing a nuclear weapon, then we will take whatever steps are necessary to stop it.”
North Korea: The View From Japan
TOKYO – Troops are not on high alert. Cities are not being evacuated. Leaders are not sprinting for fortified bunkers.
As odd and erratic as the North Koreans might be, they are not about to inaugurate new leadership by …
Pyongyang’s Proliferation
Kim Jong Il’s death leaves the Korean peninsula and the rest of East Asia in a period of great uncertainty. But one of Kim Jong Il’s most dangerous legacies has security implications well beyond the region: he leaves behind a thriving nuclear weapons export business that must now be stopped.
There has been mounting evidence in …
Meanwhile, Back in Afghanistan…
We’ve spent a day noting the formal end to our nine-year distraction in Iraq. Now let’s return to our first post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, where this active-duty Army colonel doesn’t pull many punches. Paul Yingling writes …
“Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded modification P00001 under previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, fixed-price-incentive contract (N00030-12-C-0100) which is a combined definitized deployed systems support (DSS) contract and an undefinitized contract action award for TRIDENT II (D5) production.”
Newtonian Physics
Electro-magnetic pulse. EMP. A nuclear shock wave. The ultimate doomsday weapon. Whatever you call it, the notion of detonating a nuclear blast high in the atmosphere to fry the electronics of what is underneath has been a …
About That AWOL Drone…
At least some Pentagon officials believe the Iranians have snared the RQ-170 Sentinel drone that evaporated into thin air a week ago. It apparently disappeared over eastern Iran while sniffing around Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, …
Fallout from Iran’s Nuke Push
Nuclear contagion seems to be threatening to spread in the world’s tinderbox: the Persian Gulf region. Spurred by Iran’s continued push for nuclear weapons (at least according to Western intelligence agencies and …
If Anything, $700 Billion Underestimates U.S. Nuke Spending in Next Decade
This week the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler assigned two Pinocchios to the Ploughshares Fund estimate that the United States will spend upwards of $700 billion on nuclear weapons programs over the next decade. My take on …
Things Should be Getting Pretty Tense in Tehran
Missile Defense: The Sky Continues To Fall…
Many mornings you can hear Boeing boasting over the Washington airwaves about how its ground-based missile system is protecting the United States. From what? There is no nation primed to attack the U.S. with I.C.B.M.s — or even close to it — in any military significant way. Yet we’re spending billions of dollars annually against …
Is This Any Way To Deconstruct the Triad?
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta writes Congress that the “doomsday” cuts that will befall the Defense Department if sequestration occurs will force the military to eliminate one of the legs of its strategic nuclear triad – as if this is a bad thing.
The triad – that collection of land-based missiles, bombers and …