Arms Control Wonk

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ICBM Basing Modes

Stan Norris sent along an old Center For Defense Information publication (Defense Monitor 6:10, 1981) that includes what appears to be a Defense Department comparison of 30 different basing modes for US ICBMs. Thirty! Three-zero.  On the land, under water,…

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Brodie Wonkathon

Great strategic analysts make the most of the opportunity to conceptualize the dawn of a new era. Bernard Brodie hit the jackpot twice, writing at a time when revolutions in military affairs came with dizzying frequency. As noted in an…

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Kelley on Parchin

Bob Kelley sends along a rather different view than my own more jaded take on the “landscaping” activities at Parchin.  Bob believes the Iranians are not be sanitizing the area near the test chamber at Parchin, but rather laying the…

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Return of the Hard Mobile Launcher

This is the Hard Mobile Launcher (HML) designed for the never-deployed Small ICBM, better known (somewhat offensively) as the “Midgetman.” Apparently, the US Air Force is considering bringing back mobile basing in its Analysis of Alternatives for a Minuteman Follow-on.…

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Syrian Missiles

Watching Arab governments collapse is always a nice opportunity to check out military hardware — particularly missiles.  Libya’s collapse resulted in some pretty nice shots of its remaining Scud-B missiles. Syria has yet to collapse and unleash images of wrecked…

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Origins of the Musudan IRBM

Over the years, I’ve been very interested in North Korea’s development of a new IRBM — called variously the SS-N-6 (US designation of a Soviet precursor system), the Musudan (US designation of the DPRK version) and the BM-25 (used in…

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Multilateral Negotiations

Even though the stock price of multilateral arms control is extremely low, there still aren’t many buyers. The heyday of the Conference on Disarmament was in the mid-1990s, when the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Test Ban treaties were…

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Nuclear Weapons Budget, Revisited

Russell Rumbaugh and Nathan Cohn, at the Stimson Center, have a new report out entitled, Resolving Ambiguity: Costing Nuclear Weapons, with a nice companion piece in Arms Control Today.

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No BOG Iran Work Plan Endorsement

Iran has been making quarterly statements to the IAEA Board of Governors (BOG) for nine long years. That’s longer than most current IAEA member state permanent mission representatives in Vienna can recall because virtually none of these individuals were here in Vienna back then. But there are…

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DPRK Threatens ROK Media

KCNA, on behalf of North Korea, is threatening to rain nuclear weapons down upon various media outlets in Seoul.  That’s not hyperbole, if I clarify that the nuclear part is merely implied. Good times! Seriously, KCNA has issued a long,…