Trying to Box in Biden on Arms Control
Steven Pifer and James Acton | Defense One
On Joe Biden’s first full day in the Oval Office, the White House announced its readiness to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, for five years. Former Trump administration officials wasted no time attacking the decision, asserting—falsely—that their work had provided a basis for achieving something more substantial with the Russians. These former officials are criticizing the Biden team for failing to aim for what they could not get during four years in office. They seek to set their failed negotiating aspirations as a bar against which to judge and disparage their successors’ work.
Iran’s Zarif Hints at Way to Bridge Nuclear Deal Impasse
Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay | Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested a way on Monday to overcome the U.S.-Iranian impasse over who goes first in returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, saying a top EU official could “synchronize” or “choreograph” the moves. Zarif’s stance was a shift from his position, expressed in a Jan. 22 article in which he said the United States should remove U.S. sanctions before Iran returned to the deal. “There can be a mechanism to basically either synchronize it or coordinate what can be done,” Zarif told CNN when asked how to bridge the gap. Each government wants the other to resume compliance first with the agreement, which former U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 but which President Joe Biden as said he will rejoin if Iran resumed “strict” compliance.
Iran Completes Satellite-Carrying Rocket Launch
Maziar Motamedi | Al Jazeera
Iran said it successfully completed a test launch of a satellite-carrying rocket below orbit – a move likely to raise tensions with the West. State television aired footage of the rocket being fired in daylight on Monday in a desert area but it is unclear exactly when or where the launch took place. “For the first time in the country’s space field, the first research launch of the hybrid Zuljanah satellite carrier was conducted with the aim of below-orbit testing through achieving the technology for the most powerful solid fuel engine in the country,” said Ahmad Hosseini, the spokesman for the defence ministry’s space division. The United States fears such long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also be used to launch nuclear warheads. Tehran denies the U.S. accusation.
Iran Deepens Breach of Nuclear Deal at Underground Enrichment Site
Francois Murphy | Reuters
Iran has deepened a key breach of its 2015 nuclear deal, enriching uranium with a larger number of advanced centrifuge machines in an underground plant as it faces off with the new U.S. administration on salvaging the accord. Tehran has recently accelerated its breaches of the deal, raising pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden as both sides say they are willing to come back into compliance with the badly eroded agreement if the other side moves first. Iran began its breaches in 2019 in response to Washington’s withdrawal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump and the reimposition of U.S. economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the deal.
Biden’s Pick for Pentagon Deputy Vows to Defend Nuclear Triad
Peter Martin and Tony Capaccio | Bloomberg
President Joe Biden’s nominee for deputy defense secretary told senators she backs plans to modernize the air-land-sea triad of nuclear weapons in the face of threats from China and Russia, an effort where she’d play a leading role. “I am worried about the state of the readiness of the nuclear triad, and if confirmed that is an area I would want to get my team in place and start to look at right away,” Kathleen Hicks said at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “Nuclear deterrence is the cornerstone of American national security as long as there are nuclear threats out there.” Hicks would be the first woman confirmed as deputy defense secretary, an opportunity she called “another crack in the glass ceiling.”
An Open System for Missile-Warning Satellite Data is in the Works But Faces Challenges
Sandra Erwin | Space News
During a deadly wildfire season that ravaged California in 2018, the U.S. Forest Service used data from the Air Force’s overhead missile-warning satellites to help spot new fires and flareups. Although the satellites are owned and operated by the U.S. military, sharing data with the Forest Service was difficult because the ground stations use proprietary technology designed decades ago by the Air Force’s prime contractor Lockheed Martin. Making data available for firefighters required a lot of “engineering on the back end,” said Col. Rhet Turnbull, director of the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center’s cross mission ground and communications enterprise. Turnbull’s office is leading an effort to develop an open platform to process and distribute data from current and future missile-warning satellites.