By all accounts, the US has succeeded in getting North Korea to agree to inspections at undeclared facilities as part of the verification process—another impressive diplomatic victory for Chris Hill. There’s little prospect the US will try to use this provision imminently as it appears to have agreed to a “plutonium first” approach. But, when …
DF-21 Delta aka CSS-5 Mod 4
by | 2008-10-14 | 28 Comments
I am fascinated by China’s development of conventionally-armed ballistic missiles, particularly the development of a conventionally-armed DF-21 variant, the DF-21C (pictured above, it seems). I recently read an article in Defense News by Wendell Minnick on conventionally-armed DF-21s and the threat to US carriers. It’s a good article. One observation, though — the author and …
B61 Mod 12 LEP
by | 2008-10-13 | 5 Comments
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Elaine Grossman had an excellent story on the B61 Mod 12 LEP. Elaine reported that NNSA was considering either increasing the size of the B61 or reducing the explosive yield to create “real estate” for new new safety and security features: However, if the Pentagon could either …
NORKs Delisted
by | 2008-10-12 | 7 Comments
The Bush Administration has removed North Korea from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror, following precisely the provisional delisting scenario I outlined on the blog a couple of weeks ago. I must say, I am rather proud to note “you read it here first” — on September 23. and September 28, Arms …
