The National Nuclear Security Administration is slated to receive $11.2 billion in fiscal year 2011, a 13.4 percent increase over the current fiscal year. Undersecretary Tauscher said the increase will make a "very crucial investment" in the new Stockpile Management program. Vice President Biden said the increase “reverses this decline [in nuclear laboratories and facilities] and enables us to implement the president's nuclear-security agenda.” Hell, even NNSA framed the increase as part of “implementing the nuclear security agenda President Obama outlined in his Prague speech.”

NNSA is definitely all about the Prague.

Notice that nobody said what we all know: the NNSA budget increase is hush money; or, as KReif put it, proof that the Obama administration “views increased funding for the nuclear enterprise as a necessary step to secure Republican support for a new arms control agreement and the CTBT.” Perhaps “retainer fee” sounds less gangster?

Leave it to a number cruncher to cut through the BS. In response to a question about the cost of New START implementation at his budget briefing Monday, DOD Comptroller Robert Hale said “the adds to the budget of the National Nuclear Security Administration…will improve nuclear infrastructure in a variety of ways and – and we think that is an important step toward START ratification.”

I’m glad we’re all on the same page now.

UPDATE 2/4: I didn't see it before posting, but Jeffrey Lewis takes up this same issue over at ACW.

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Nukes on a Blog, New START, START, Congress (all tags)

The Arms Control Association has released the nominees for its third annual Arms Controller of the Year contest. Previous winners include Norway's foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Reps. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and David Hobson (R-Ohio).

President Obama is the obvious frontrunner, but he’s already been on an award tour or two this year, hasn’t he?

German foreign ministers Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Guido Westerwelle and Japanese foreign minister Katsuya Okada might be good choices because of their willingness to remind everyone that the “beneficiaries” of U.S. extended nuclear deterrence not only have a say in the policy, but also possess serious doubts about whether Cold War-style nuclear deployments are still the best way to deal with 21st century security challenges.

Looking ahead, NOH hopes that the 2010 award goes to Vice President Biden after he helps find a non-retrograde solution for modernization, shepherds a treaty or two through the Senate, and begins operationalizing –through both the budget and the global nuclear security summit – the administration’s plan to secure all vulnerable fissile material within four years.

12 months and counting, Veep. Do it to it.

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Nukes of a Blog, New START, START, Russia, CTBT, Obama Administration, Japan (all tags)

It still looks like signature of New START will have to wait until 2010. The Russians said that the exchange of missile test telemetry continues to be a problem.

In another installment of her great reporting on President Obama’s arms control agenda, Plutonium Page of Daily Kos yesterday wrote about current and future difficulties facing New START. Page talked to Kingston about the challenges presented by mobile missiles, “attribution vs. actual” counting rules, and efforts to trade ratification of New START for new nuclear weapons.

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Nukes of a Blog, New START, START, Russia (all tags)

AP:

The White House said Tuesday it didn't expect President Barack Obama to sign a nuclear weapons treaty with Russia when he travels to Copenhagen this week.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. and Russia continued to make progress on negotiations for a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START, and that he hoped an agreement would be reached soon. But the spokesman said there was no signing ceremony planned in Copenhagen, nor did he expect there to be any additional stops in nearby countries.

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Nukes on a Blog, New START, START, Russia (all tags)

The International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament today released its big report, “Eliminating Nuclear Threats: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers.” At over 300 pages and with 76 recommendations and loads of supplemental data, this report is an arms control abbondanza. The commissioners are ballers, too.

Here are five of the report’s more significant recommendations…

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Nukes on a Blog, CTBT, START, Posture Review, New START, Extended Deterrence (all tags)

The Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies released a new report this month that sees a “de facto nuclear dyad” of ICBMs and SLBMs – sans bombers - as the future nuclear force posture of the United States.

As with many nuclear weapons issues right now, however, properly interpreting the report hinges on what your definition of “modernization” is…

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Nukes on a Blog, START, New START, Posture Review (all tags)

With December 18 being floated as a potential signing date for the “New START” agreement between the United States and Russia, all the apes have left to do is agree upon a treadmill downshifting scheme that will maximize their appeal to all the lovely lady apes working the free weights.

This part is tricky…

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Nukes on a Blog, New START, START, Russia (all tags)

By Kingston Reif and Travis Sharp

As usual, Politico beats everyone to the punch. First Laura Rozen, then Ben Smith:

The White House sends the "Joint Statement by the President of the United States of America and the President of the Russian Federation on the Expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START):  Recognizing our mutual determination to support strategic stability between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, we express our commitment, as a matter of principle, to continue to work together in the spirit of the START Treaty following its expiration, as well as our firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms enter into force at the earliest possible date."

It is unclear to us whether this brief statement is all that will be issued, or whether a more formal announcement – that perhaps outlines which specific provisions of START I will be adhered to – will come out later.

Regardless, even this brief statement shows that the United States and Russia have agreed to continue to adhere to some (we don’t know which) of START I’s provisions in order to cover the gap between expiration of START I and signing/entry into force of New START.

UPDATE 11:55AM: The official White House statement is now posted. Text is the same as above.

UPDATE 12:25PM: Brian Whitmore adds good reportage at RFE:

The Russian Foreign Ministry also released a statement today saying "intensive efforts" on the new arms accord "are drawing to a close" and predicted that the new START treaty would be a "landmark in disarmament and nonproliferation and mark a move toward a higher degree of cooperation between Russia and the United States."

[snip]

Steven Pifer, a former State Department official specializing in arms control issues and Russian affairs, says "both sides have a strong motivation for an agreement," but adds that Moscow is dragging out the talks in hopes of winning last-minute concessions from Washington.

"I think there is a little bit of gamesmanship on the Russian side," Pifer says. "They realize that next Thursday, President Obama is going to be in Oslo to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. They probably calculate that he would like to arrive in Oslo with an arms control treaty in hand. And I think they are trying to drag this out and see if they can use that timeline to extract some extra movement from the U.S. side."

UPDATE 4PM: Our statement went out earlier. John and Leonor advise chilling out, maxing, and relaxing all cool.

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Nukes on a Blog, New START, START, Russia (all tags)

Not to be overshadowed by his friends in the Senate, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), dean of the Massachusetts delegation and a leading light on nuclear nonproliferation, sent his Nuclear Posture Review recommendations to the White House yesterday.

All Markey wants for Christmas is mission limitation to core deterrence. Well, that and the end of high-alert, a no first use pledge, a stockpile of fewer than 1,000 warheads, no new-design warheads, and CTBT ratification.

As Markey himself might say, once more unto the breach, dear friends.

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Nukes on a Blog, Congress, START, CTBT, Posture Review (all tags)

Chaired by Senators Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) and Michael Enzi (R-Wyoming), the Senate ICBM Coalition is comprised of senators who represent states that host, maintain, or administer ICBM forces and/or operations. On November 6, the Coalition released “The Long Pole of the Nuclear Umbrella,” a report that argues in support of maintaining the current U.S. force of 450 ICBMs.

The report’s executive summary states...

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Nukes on a Blog, Congress, START, Posture Review, Senate, New START (all tags)