$6 billion to renew unnecessary B61 atomic bomb

ACA expert Kimball says it is “tragic that the B61s based in Europe are irrelevant to NATO’s defense.” He says their destructive capability is so massive that it makes their use incredible. “Neither US nor European taxpayers should be asked to waste more money to upgrade the system.”

US Nuclear Weapons Upgrades Experts Report Massive Cost Increase Spiegel Online, By Markus Becker , 16 May 12, The cost of modernizing US nuclear weapons, including those stationed in Germany, has risen sharply, according to estimates. Several independent experts told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the bill for renewing the B61 atomic bomb will rise to $6 billion. The project will also upset Russia, they say.

The B61 is the last remnant of the Cold War in Germany.An estimated 10 to 20 of the atomic bombs are thought to remain in storage at a German Air Force base in Büchel, a village in the Eifel mountains of western Germany. Should war break out, the Tornado aircraft belonging to the German Air Force could immediately be armed with the weapons
for sorties under US control.

But the fact that such a scenario is considered extremely unlikely has
not prevented the US from embarking on an effort to upgrade the
stockpile, as it is doing with much of its nuclear arsenal. The Life
Extension Program (LEP) for the B61 — of which there are between 160
and 200 in Europe — is considered to be the most difficult and
expensive of all. In 2010, the Department of Energy requested almost
$2 billion (€1.6 billion) for the project, to be spent over four
years. Later, the number rose to $4 billion.
Now, the total is expected to by closer to $6 billion, as several
experts have reported independently. The first to write of the
exploding costs was Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American
Scientists (FAS). Other experts are not surprised. “The $6 billion
estimate for B61 LEP is consistent with our estimates,” wrote
executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington,
Daryl Kimball, in an email……
‘Unproven Technologies’

The costs are not the only element of the refurbishment program which
has experts shaking their heads. Many are uncomfortable with the sheer
extent of the B61 modernization program. The NNSA wants to revamp old
components, install new safety mechanisms and detonators and make
improvements to the design all at the same time. Such an
all-encompassing renewal effort has never been tried before, says the
Union of Concerned Scientists, a group which is critical of nuclear
weapons. They also warn that some of the new parts, including the
detonators, are not yet ready for prime time. “You read that right,”
wrote UCS experts Nickolas Roth and Stephen Young on the group’s
website. “The multi-point safety and new detonators are unproven,
immature technologies.”

In short, the project — should it succeed despite the high costs and
technical hurdles — is not merely limited to extending the weapons’
lifespans, but would be akin to creating a new weapon
altogether…….
In the end, the high costs of the modernization program could
ultimately kill it. That, at least, is the hope of Richard Burt, a
former US ambassador to Germany and a leading member of the Global
Zero initiative. “We seriously doubt whether this LEP program will be
pursued to the end,” Burt told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “It might well be
postponed indefinitely given the reported cost overrun.”
An end to the B61, whether for technical or cost reasons, would be
welcome news to most experts. “US nukes in Europe have no military
utility,” says Burt, who as Washington’s chief negotiator in 1991, was
a key player in initiating talks with the Soviet Union on the START
treaty. Instead, the Americans would be more likely to deploy
intercontinental ballistic missiles stationed on US soil or atomic
weapons based on submarines. As such, Kristensen demands in a recently
published report, the US should withdraw all tactical nuclear weapons
from Europe no matter what the Russians do.