A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a really interesting story from Operation Desert Storm. Did you know the United States deployed a Ground-Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) unit in Saudi Arabia? But, instead of being equipped with nuclear-armed BGM-109G Gryphon, the unit deployed with Navy BQM-74 Chukar drones that were used to spoof the radars associated with Iraq’s …
No, Oz is not an NPT Nuclear Weapon State
by | 2015-11-19 | 17 Comments
When I was in Washington recently, I had a very funny conversation with Matthew Harries over dinner. It seems there is a proposal for Australia to seek nuclear-weapons state status under the NPT on rather weak claim that the UK had conducted nuclear tests down under in the 1950s. I was delighted when Matt and Hassan Elbahtimy offered to write up …
The Next War or the Last War in South Asia?
by | 2015-11-17 | 5 Comments
Two fundamentally different nuclear futures are conceivable on the subcontinent. One is surprisingly pacific, even without conflict resolution between India and Pakistan. The other is deeply tragic – the worst case of a limited conventional war crossing the nuclear threshold. This choice is worthy of discussion with Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Raheel Sharif, who is in …
More on Status-6/Kanyon
by | 2015-11-13 | 26 Comments
I have a new column (“Putin’s Doomsday Machine”) up on Status-6/Kanyon — the Russian underwater drone that is apparently armed with a very dirty thermonuclear weapon. I wasn’t really able to do the science justice in the column, so I wanted to add a few thoughts here. There are really two different things going on. …
