ARMS CONTROL ASSOCIATION OUTLINES NUCLEAR SAVINGS

The Obama Administration could save $50 billion over the next 10 years by more efficiently fielding nuclear warheads under the New START Treaty and slowing down plans to build new delivery vehicles and warheads, including a planned refurbishment of the B61 nuclear bomb, according to a new analysis from the Arms Control Association. The B61 refurbishment is anticipated to cost as much as $10 billion, but the Arms Control Association suggested cutting plans to refurbish tactical B61 warheads that are deployed in Europe, which amount to about half of the B61 bombs planned for refurbishment. The group also suggested only replacing limited life components for the remaining warheads needing to be refurbished. “With the B61, they’re talking about spending $10 billion on the life extension when it’s clear the 180 or so tactical B61s in Europe are destined for the dust bin of history, whether that’s through some negotiation with Russia or NATO realizes they are militarily irrelevant and politically irrelevant,” ACA Executive Director Daryl Kimball said as ACA revealed its cost-cutting projections at an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace yesterday. Such a move could save $5 billion, according to the group’s projections. 

Reducing the amount of nuclear submarines from 12 to 8 but increasing the amount of warheads deployed on each submarine, and cutting the number of planned Ohio class replacement submarines from 12 to 8, could save $18 billion, the group said, as could delaying plans to build a new strategic bomber until the 2020s. Cancelling a planned missile defense deployment in Eastern Europe, which the Obama Administration did last week, would also save about $9 billion, the group said. “There is a confluence of events happening,” Kimball said. “There is the reality that nuclear weapons are playing a dim role in U.S. security strategy. The President has signaled there will be reductions, exactly how those are achieved is yet to be seen in terms of what Russia is interested in. We’re trying to help policy maker solve a couple of problems here.” Kimball and ACA Research Director Tom Collina said that another $8 billion could be saved if the Administration were to reduce the size of its stockpile to 1,000 or 1,100 deployed warheads by fully delaying the B61 refurbishment and delaying plans to develop a new intercontinental ballistic missile.