Tell the US Senate: no NEW nuclear bombs!

FAS opposes the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) and asks you to tell your Senator to vote against the funding for this new nuclear bomb.  We urge you to visit the FAS petition at www.fas.org/cwpand personalize your communication so as to increase its impact on your elected representative. The vote is expected within the next two weeks.

The House Appropriations Committee has already voted to zero out funding for the RRW.  The Committee said that, almost two decades after the end of the Cold War, the United States does not have a plausible nuclear strategy and essentially put a freeze on long-term spending until we develop one.

Their report states: “The Committee believes it is premature to proceed with further development of the RRW or a significant nuclear complex modernization plan, until a three-part planning sequence is completed, including: (1) a comprehensive nuclear defense strategy, based on current and projected global threats; (2) clearly defined military requirements for the size and composition of the nuclear stockpile derived from a comprehensive nuclear defense strategy; and (3) alignment of these military requirements to the existing and estimated future needs and capabilities of NNSA’s [National Nuclear Security Agency] weapons complex.”

In other words, the United States is not going to have a huge nuclear arsenal in the future just because it has had one in the past. 

Visit the FAS petition at www.fas.org/cwp

So now the decision moves to the Senate.  If the Senate also zeroes the money for the RRW, it cannot proceed.  Write or email your Senator, telling them that the RRW is not needed, for the following reasons:

·       The RRW will not be significantly more reliable than current warheads. Current nuclear weapons are at worst 98% reliable and will continue in this state for the next 30-40 years. The warheads sit atop missiles that are reckoned to be about 90% or so reliable, which swamps the unreliability of the warheads themselves

·       The RRW is not a “replacement.”  Current plans call for using the RRW along with, not instead of, the current W-76. 

·       The RRW will not save money, especially because existing warhead types are not going to be retired but retained for decades.

·       The real objective of the RRW is to maintain a nuclear weapons manufacturing base, forever. The Department of Energy, no matter how far into the future it looks, cannot envision an America without thousands of nuclear weapons (The US nuclear stockpile is currently 10,000 warheads).

For further reading on the RRW and the future of nuclear weapons please see the commentary and analysis of FAS Vice President for Strategic Security, Ivan Oelrich here:

• Key Senate Vote:
  http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2007/06/key_senate_vote_on_the_reliabl.php#more

• Critique of Bush Administration arguments:
  http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2007/06/we_can_hear_you_just_fine_its_1.php#more