The Unaffordable Arsenal; Reducing the Costs of the Bloated U.S. Nuclear Stockpile
Washington DC: The Arms Control Association, 2014. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. [2], 30 pages. Tables. Graphs. This is and Arms Control Association Report. The author has most recently been associated with The Ploughshares Fund. As director of policy he brings 25 years of Washington, DC experience in nuclear weapons, missile defense and nonproliferation issues to Ploughshares Fund. He has worked extensively as a researcher, analyst, and advocate to strengthen the efforts to end US nuclear testing, rationalize anti-missile programs, extend the Nonproliferation Treaty, and secure Senate ratification of the New START Treaty among others. Prior to joining Ploughshares Fund in 2014, Tom served as Research Director of the Arms Control Association. He was the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Institute for Science and International Security and the Director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, among other leadership positions. He has published widely in major magazines and journals and has appeared frequently in the national media. The Arms Control Association is a United States-based nonpartisan membership organization founded in 1971, with the self-stated mission of "promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies." The report, entitled “The Unaffordable Arsenal: Reducing the Costs of the Bloated U.S. Nuclear Stockpile,” examines the role of the nuclear weapons arsenal in the Pentagon’s current budget crisis. In it, Collina argues that the military’s budget crunch is not so much the result of low funding, but a misallocation of what funding already exists. Rather than spending $355 billion on nuclear weapons over the next 10 years (and up to $1 trillion over the next 30), military planners should use a portion of that money to fund the conventional forces supposedly starved for cash. The gratuitous size of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile makes this not only a smart financial decision, but a safe strategic decision as well.
According analysis by Collina --who joined the Ploughshares Fund last month after five years as the Research Director of the ACA-- the U.S. should be able to save $70 billion over ten years through commonsense cuts across the triad, and still deploy the 1,500 warhead maximum allowed by the New START treaty. This recommendation follows three main principles: not replacing weapons systems prematurely, not replacing weapons simply because they have been in the arsenal before, and reevaluating whether the U.S. needs to maintain cold-war level nuclear capabilities. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Forces, Arms Control, Strategic Arms Reduction, B61 bomb, Nuclear Warhead Inventories, Ballistic Missile Submarines, Budget Savings, Cost Estimation, Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan
[Book #75086]
Price: $45.00