U.S.: North Korea Shrinks Warning Time for Nuclear Attack on America
Barbara Starr | CNN
The US government is increasingly concerned that advances in North Korea's weapons program have dramatically decreased the warning time for a nuclear attack on America or its allies, according to US officials. The regime's aggressive testing of medium- and long-range missiles -- as well as its nuclear testing -- makes North Korea now a "practical" threat and no longer a "theoretical" threat, in the words of one US official familiar with the latest US intelligence thinking.
North Korea Confirms Restart of Plutonium Processing
Japan Times
North Korea confirmed Wednesday it has resumed plutonium production and said it has no plans to stop nuclear tests as long as perceived threats from the United States continue. “We have reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods removed from a graphite-moderated reactor,” the Atomic Energy Institute, which holds jurisdiction over North Korea’s main nuclear facilities at its Nyongbyon complex, said in a written interview with Kyodo.
FY 2017 Weapon Systems Factbook
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
Each year, the Department of Defense (DoD) submits Selected Acquisition Reports (SARs) to Congress detailing the status, plans, and funding requirements for almost eighty Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs). The most recent unclassified SARs, which were submitted in December 2015 and are consistent with the President’s FY 2017 budget request, project funding and quantities for major acquisition programs extending more than thirty years into the future. The SARs project that these programs will need $321 billion over the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), spanning FY 2017 to FY 2021, and an additional $410 billion in FY 2022 and beyond.
Air Force Ballistic Missile Upgrade Said to Be Stalled Over Cost
Anthony Capaccio | Bloomberg
The U.S. Air Force’s program to develop and field a new intercontinental ballistic missile to replace aging Minuteman III weapons is stalled over Pentagon concerns the service underestimated the cost by billions of dollars, according to a defense official familiar with the program. The service is grappling with a substantial gap between the cost estimate its officials prepared for an Aug. 3 meeting of the Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition Board and one crafted by the department’s office of independent cost assessment, said the official, who asked not to be identified because of the internal debate.
Arab States Won't Demand Vote on Israel's Nuclear Arms at IAEA Conference in September
Haaretz
The Arab states, led by Egypt, plan to refrain this year from seeking a vote on a resolution regarding the oversight of Israel’s nuclear facilities during the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference next month, according to a cable sent to several Israeli embassies abroad, whose contents reached Haaretz.
Hitachi Zosen Aims to Help Build U.S. Nuclear Waste Facility
Nikkei Asian Review
Japanese plant engineering company Hitachi Zosen is part of a consortium that hopes to build a large facility in the U.S. for the interim storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The facility in the state of Texas is expected to have the capacity to store 40,000 tons of radioactive waste.