Posted on 02/02/2005 2:49:25 PM PST by neverdem
Bush Budget May Fund Program That Congress Cut
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sent a memo last month to then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham saying next year's budget should include funds to resume study of building an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon designed to destroy hardened underground targets.
An Energy Department official said yesterday that $10.3 million to restart that study is expected to be included in the Bush administration's budget, which is to be released next week.
The study, which had been undertaken at the Los Alamos, Sandia and Livermore national laboratories, was halted late last year after Congress deleted $27.5 million for it from the fiscal 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill.
The research project was started in 2002 as a three-year effort to see if an existing nuclear warhead could be fitted with a hardened casing allowing it to dig deep into the earth before exploding. The program has been restricted each year by Senate and House members who have argued that even studying the potential for such a new nuclear weapon undermines Washington's attempts to limit other countries from developing their own nuclear arsenals.
Last year, at the insistence of Rep. David L. Hobson (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water, Congress cut all money for the program. That came as a reaction to a five-year budget projection by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the nuclear program within the Energy Department, that estimated spending almost $500 million to produce the weapon in the budgets for fiscal 2005 to 2009.
Up to that point, the Bush administration had emphasized that the "bunker buster" program was only a research study, and Congress would have to vote on going ahead with production before that step was to be taken.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Great dat for this.
It should be nicknamed "The Groundhog."
;)
Great DAY even.
:p................
For rumsfeld fans - a biography, quotes, sayings and policy articulations:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/rumsfeld.htm
What would the yield of these things be? I'd like to see us researching higher yield next-gen stuff for replacements of the W88 as well.
A relavent excerpt (notice the similarities between missile defense and bunker buster nukes):
Q: So why have they objected? [Russians to to US pursuing a missile defense] (2001)
Rumsfeld: Oh, I don't know. I don't climb in people's mind. Obviously it's to their advantage to express concern about it. There is the ABM Treaty, which they would have to adjust. I think before it's over, they will accommodate themselves. Of course, let's be very honest about what Russia is doing. Russia is an active proliferator. They are part of the problem. They are selling and assisting countries like Iran and North Korea and India and other countries with these technologies which are threatening other people including the United States and Western Europe and countries in the Middle East. So why they would be actively proliferating and then complaining when the United States wants to defend itself against the, the fruit of those proliferation activities, it seems to me, is misplaced.
It threatens no one. And it should be of concern to no one, including the Russians or the Chinese, unless someone has an intention of doing damage to other people.
Now, the argument against every weapons system almost in history is -- the first argument is that it cost too much. And the next argument is that it won't work. And the next argument is that it will work so well, that it will be destabilizing.
Well, we're hearing all of that now. But that would have been true of anything.
Those arguments, they would have made the same arguments against every weapon system known to man. So I don't particularly find them very valid.
Q: Could I ask you just a follow-up question, Mr. Secretary, on that same subject, your thinking about missile defense? In your mind, is theater missile defense a higher priority than national missile defense?
Rumsfeld: I have gotten to the point where I now am sufficiently into this subject where I've concluded that "national" and "theater" are words that aren't useful. At least for me they're not, in how to think about it, for this reason: What's "national" depends on where you live, and what's "theater" depends on where you live.
better yet....after Red Dawn......"WOLVERINES"
It's less about yield and more about reachieving parity. It's probably a dial-a-nuke, though.
If they think they can survive underground, that causes an imbalance in MAD.
From Ivan's perspective, their Topol-M restores the parity that our missile defense shield upset.
I'd put my money on our shield before I'd put it on their bunkers.
Good, We need them to destroy the Moolahs nuclear facilities.
also North koreas..
Yeap.
Thanks for the link.
They are also working on nano-explosives...so a nano N war-head in a hardened delivery system...That would be interesting.
MD
The little prick in Pyongyang is trembling at this news.
I read a little about these a while back. Dont even remember the source.
I believe they are designed to be low yield devices capable of penetrating into deeply dug in installations and destroying them.
Just the perfect solution to Iran, North Korea, and other traditional enemies who have invested millions in underground military infrastructure.
I know most people get a knee jerk reaction to nuclear development, but it seems this is the only known way to destroy these types of installations. (I could be wrong, however...havent been keeping up lately.)
You are absolutely correct, JM. It IS the only way. JDAMs are good, but entirely underpowered for this application.
The goblins need to know that there's no point in hiding underground; we need to make sure that the world knows that a nuclear war is not something that can be won, either through hiding or shield spoofing. As it is now, we are at a disadvantage until we have this development complete. Restoring the balance of MAD is what will keep us safe from traditional enemies while we dig out the islamofascists.
Watching the DNC convention in Boston, I witnessed BJ slam GWB for wanting to develop these. He still doesn't get it; he actually helped create some of the need for these tools.
If it's long enough, they could even name it "The Hedgehog."
Well sure! Because after all we are the moral and political equivalent of Syria, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran etc. I hope it was only Dems that voted to defund this program.
What was the line from Dr. Strangelove? Mr President Ve VILL HAF a MINESHAFT disparity!
Seriously, why not just trot out the Neutron? That radiation will kill fifty or a hundred MILES into the ground and you can take over in a couple of days without even messing the floors in the bunkers.
In spite pf the hype, the neutron is no more than an increased radiation nuke. It would be less effective than conventional weapons in this application. You want force in this case.
The key words were "if they think". If they know we can make 50 + years of underground construction irrelevent, they'll come to the table with intentions other than buying construction time.
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