Taxpayers Should Question the Pitch to Fund Another Naval Nuclear Weapon
George Perkovich | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Trade-offs always arise for states deciding whether to spend billions of dollars on a new weapon system, and the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) is no exception. In the United States, proponents of this weapon have not made detailed arguments in its favor, but their main assertions are that the country needs some unspecified number of SLCM-Ns to deter Russia from invading a NATO country and China from attacking Taiwan—a so-called deterrence gap. Congress should question such assertions.
North Korea May Be Trapped Between Famine and Plague
Ankit Panda | Foreign Policy
For Kim, who celebrated the completion of a decade in power just months ago, the arrival of omicron and its subvariants in North Korea represents a severe threat. Yet COVID-19 is far from the only challenge for the country right now. North Korea may once again be on the brink of famine. On New Year’s Day this year, Kim delivered remarks that emphasized not nuclear weapons and missiles, but agricultural output. North Korea is no stranger to food shortages, but the combination of widespread food insecurity and a deadly respiratory virus is a new and frightening challenge. While the situation remains fluid, this set of parallel challenges appears to pose a fundamental dilemma for the regime in how to manage the spread of the virus.
Radioactive: Inside the Top-Secret AUKUS Subs Deal
Peter Hartcher | Sidney Morning Herald
When Joe Biden was first briefed on Australia’s request for nuclear-powered submarines, he did not say “yes.” He was cautious, even skeptical. Among his doubts was whether Australia was up to it. In the meeting with about a dozen of his top national security officials in a secure White House situation room, the US president remarked that while Australia was a stalwart ally, this was an enormously complex and expensive undertaking. “He asked lots of questions,” said the official who led the briefing, the Indo-Pacific Co-ordinator in Biden’s National Security Council, Kurt Campbell. “He wanted to be convinced.” The Australians were asking for the crown jewels in the national security vault, one of America’s remaining decisive advantages over China. The US had shared its nuclear sub secrets with only one nation, Britain, in 1958. Much had changed since.
New Satellite Images Reveal North Korea Has Restarted Construction on Long-Dormant Nuclear Reactor
Zachary Cohen | CNN
North Korea appears to have resumed construction at a long-dormant nuclear reactor in recent weeks that, if completed, would dramatically increase its capacity to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, according to new satellite images obtained by CNN and a source familiar with recent US intelligence reporting on the matter. The satellite images, which were captured by Maxar during April and May of this year, show North Korea has restarted construction of the second reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex after years of inactivity, experts at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who analyzed the photos said. The reactor is about 10 times larger than the existing nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, which has been operating since the late 1980s.
US Air Force Tests Troubled Hypersonic Missile
Oren Liebermann | CNN
The US Air Force carried out a successful test of its troubled hypersonic missile over the weekend, one month after announcing the program had suffered delays because of “recent flight test anomalies.” The Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon was successfully released from a B-52H bomber off the coast of Southern California on Saturday and attained hypersonic speeds, the Air Force announced on Monday, without releasing any more details about the test itself, such as the duration of the flight or its altitude. “This was a major accomplishment by the ARRW team, for the weapon enterprise, and our Air Force,” said Brig. Gen. Heath Collins, the Air Force’s program executive officer for weapons.
Germany to Vote Against EU Plan to Label Nuclear as Green but Won’t Sue
Hans Von Der Burchard | POLITICO
Germany will vote against the European Commission’s controversial “taxonomy” proposal that classes nuclear energy as green but won’t file a lawsuit against it, German officials told POLITICO. A German finance ministry official told POLITICO that Berlin notified the French Council presidency that it plans to vote against the measure. France, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, had asked countries to indicate by Friday how they plan to vote on the proposal. The Commission presented its long-awaited green labeling system for investments in the energy sector at the end of last year. The fact that nuclear energy is classified as a green technology — something that France had pushed for — immediately caused a strong backlash from the German government and especially ministers from the Green party, which has opposed nuclear energy since its foundation some 40 years ago.