456 posts
Barton Gellman of the Washington Post reports that: The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA’s historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad,…
Beryllium (Be) from Element Displays US intelligence reports that Iran imported large quantities of beryllium, which can be combined with polonium-210 (Po-210) to initiate a nuclear chain reaction, appear to be false. The revelation undermines a key claim used by…
Bill Gertz, reporting with Rowan Scarborough in his latest Inside the Ring column, states: China has deployed a brigade of up to eight new road-mobile DF-31 long-range missiles. That’s the latest assessment from the authoritative International Institute for Strategic Studies…
Zapping Space-Based Interceptors? Not so fast. MDA Director Henry “Trey” Obering wants to keep as many missile defense programs alive as possible, including programs for space-based missile defense interceptors, despite looming budget cuts. With the Missile Defense Agency facing a…
The Chinese government has now made a little noticed step toward nuclear transparency. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, in April 2004, released a fact sheet entitled China: Nuclear Disarmament and Reduction … that states: Among the nuclear-weapon states, China has performed…
Bill Arkin has published a new book, Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operations in the 9/11 World that “identifies more than 3,000 code names and details the plans and missions for which they stand.” General Charles Horner,…
I started ArmsControlWonk.com in March 2004 for inchoate reasons. Over time, I’ve constructed an elaborate post-hoc rationalization for the site focusing on four goals: To report items of interest that wouldn’t make it into the New York Times, Place arms…
In May 2004, I blogged about three upcoming launches of concern: XSS-11, NFIRE and a classified Air Force payload. At least two, and possibly all three, have been delayed. Here is an update. Experimental Spacecraft System (XSS)-11. The successor to…
Whereas Condi’s confirmation hearing was largely theater (16-2), the upcoming confirmation hearing for Secretary of Energy nominee Samuel Bodman (right) offers a real opportunity to resolve an enigma for Senate Democrats. Bodman is a chemical engineer with no background in…
Lest we forget: Hiroshima Peace Memorial (source) Does the United States need the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP)—a new 1 MT bunker busting nuclear weapon? After dueling op-eds on that question and the future of the nuclear deterrent by Frank…
