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America’s financially crippling addiction to nuclear weapons

America’s Nuclear Bomb Problem: Outdated B61s Need Expensive Upgrades If U.S. Wants To Keep Them Around  International Science Times By Philip Ross on September 23, 2013 U.S. has a nuclear bomb problem. Mainly, the country’s stockpile of B61 nuclear bombs, which have collected dust ever since they were shoved into storage following the Cold War, are in need of some serious – and expensive – upgrades should the U.S. government want to keep them around. According to The World Herald, some of the components of the aging B61s are so old, they can’t be replaced at all.

The slender, gray cylinder bombs, which weigh 700 pounds each and measure 11 feet long and 13 inches in diameter, were designed and built in the 1960s by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear weapon facility located in New Mexico. The B61s were deployed at NATO air bases in Europe and were meant to dissuade Soviet aggression on the continent during the Cold War. There were about 3,155 of the bombs built during that time.

According to a 2005 report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, the U.S. still has about 480 nuclear weapons in Europe, stored at eight bases in six countries. The U.S. has about 250 of the B61s left lying around air bases in Missouri and North Dakota, with additional bombs stored in Nevada and New Mexico.

The B61s are the most versatile weapon in the U.S. stockpile. They were built to withstand supersonic speeds and can be carried long distances. The nuclear devices also contain about 6,500 parts, and decades of storage have degraded the bombs to a point where some of the electronic pieces are obsolete and unreliable.

“The B61 life-extension program is absolutely necessary,” Gen. C. Robert Kehler, a Commander of the U.S. Department of Defense, told The World-Herald. “Much has been deferred. Now we don’t have the luxury of waiting.” But it’s not a matter of simply dusting the bombs off and tightening a few screws here and there. The nuclear bombs need expensive upgrades – refurbishments that are estimated to cost about $28 million per bomb, according to The World Herald. That’s not to mention the estimated $65 billion price tag to retool America’s missiles, submarines and aircrafts, something politicians on both the left and the right are reluctant to do during a time of congressional belt tightening.

In August, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S.’s nuclear stash, pitched a solution to America’s B61 nuclear bomb problem. They want to not only refurbish the bombs, but also upgrade them……. http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/6107/20130923/nuclear-bomb-b61-cold-war-weapons-upgrades.htm

September 24, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war