I have posted before on attempts to remove nuclear weapons from the arsenals of nations. Nuclear disarmament was once a major political issue with hundreds of thousands of people across the world gathering to protest nuclear weapons. As the focus shifted from the Cold War to the "war on terror," public concern over nuclear weapons has waned.
As I have said in previous posts, a fraction of the nuclear arsenals on Earth today would be enough to destroy human civilization and cause the death of billions of people. No one can "win" a nuclear war. The U.S. and Russia still each have around forty five hundred operational nuclear warhead which is a major reduction for the more than twenty thousand warheads that each had during the height of the Cold War. The U.S. and Russian arsenals are pointed at each other and can launch in minutes.
Accidents and mistakes have almost triggered nuclear war several times. The Obama administration has been a strong supporter of nuclear disarmament. There is a five year moratorium on allocating any U.S. federal funds for designing an "interoperable" warhead that could be used on both ICBMs and submarine launched missiles.
The supporters of nuclear weapons in the federal government, nuclear weapon laboratories and the nuclear arms industry have been lobbying recently for a new type of warhead and delivery vehicle called the Long-Range Stand Off Weapon (LRSO). The cruise missile is a standoff weapon. A pilot can launch a cruise missile in the air and the missile will fly below radar to hit a far away target. The pilot and his plane will not be close to or threatened by the nuclear blast. The LRSO is a new version of a cruise missile vehicle that would be launched by our fleet of B-52 and B-2 heavy bombers.
The Air Force sent out a solicitation to defense contractors requesting new approaches for manufacturing the new LRSO missile. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon have all begun to investigate the possibilities of manufacture and sale of LRSO missiles.
The U.S. has been a strong supporter of nuclear disarmament since the end of the Cold War. The U.S is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Unfortunately, while reducing nuclear warhead inventories, the U.S. has simultaneously supported various programs intended to "maintain and modernize" our nuclear arsenal which will not reduce the number of warheads and may lead to the creation of new warheads and delivery vehicles such as the LRSO. Russia is also claiming to support nuclear disarmament while "modernizing" its arsenal. In addition, other countries that have sworn off nuclear weapons such as Japan and Ukraine are now talking about the possible need for them to develop their own nuclear arsenals.
All nuclear weapons on Earth should be eliminated before a tragic accident or misunderstanding leads to global nuclear war, nuclear winter and the end of human civilization. "Modernization" is not a reasonable alternative to disarmament and the U.S. should not spend another dollar to develop new nuclear weapons.
B-2A Bomber:
