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By Maggie Tennis |
Russian Complaints |
Specific Details |
Plutonium Disposition |
Posted: May 31, 2017 |
GAO Sees Big Rise in B61 Bomb Cost |
GAO Sees Big Rise in B61 Bomb Cost |
June 2017 |
By Kingston Reif |
The program to rebuild the B61 nuclear gravity bomb is likely to exceed Energy Department cost projections by about $2.5 billion, or 35 percent, and begin production two years later than anticipated, according to the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO). |
In addition, the GAO study released in April disputes the department’s claim that its long-term plans to sustain and modernize U.S. nuclear warheads and their supporting infrastructure are affordable, calling this conclusion “optimistic.” |
An Air Force F-16C prepares to drop an inert B61-12 during a development flight test by the 422nd Flight Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, on March 14, 2017. The test is part of the life extension program intended to improve the weapon’s safety, security and reliability. (Photo credit: Staf... |
An updated assessment of the B61 life extension program (LEP) performed by the NNSA about a year ago put the direct cost of the program at $7.6 billion, an increase of $200 million over the agency’s estimate of $7.4 billion provided in its fiscal year 2017 budget materials. The NNSA’s independent Office of Cost Estimat... |
Arms Control Today reported last November that the independent office’s analysis had identified program risk factors that could lead to cost increases and schedule delays. (See ACT, November 2016.) |
Although the NNSA’s fiscal year 2018 budget request of $789 million for the B61 LEP reflects the agency’s updated $7.6 billion cost figure, it is not in line with the independent projection. An NNSA spokesperson told Arms Control Today last fall that the B61 program office is “monitoring and mitigating” the cost and sc... |
Under the B61 LEP, the NNSA plans to consolidate four of the five existing versions of the bomb into a single weapon known as the B61-12. The upgraded weapon will be equipped with a new tail-kit guidance assembly that will make the bomb more accurate and allow it to have a lower yield than some of the existing variants... |
The NNSA is expected to produce 400 to 500 B61-12s, which officials have said will lead to the retirement of the stock of B83 gravity bombs, the most powerful nuclear weapon remaining in the U.S. arsenal. |
The GAO report also showed that the NNSA thinks the estimated cost of the program to refurbish the existing air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) warhead could be understated by more than $1 billion. |
The LEP for the ALCM warhead would receive $399 million billion under the fiscal year 2018 budget request, an increase of $179 million over the current-year level, but a decrease of $63 million below the projection in Obama’s final budget submission. The first refurnished ALCM warhead, which will be mated to the new lo... |
Overall, the GAO report concluded that “budget estimates in some of NNSA’s fiscal year 2017 nuclear security budget materials do not align with the agency’s plans for its modernization efforts at several levels, raising concerns about the overall affordability of NNSA’s planned portfolio of nuclear modernization progra... |
The auditors note that the NNSA may need $2.9 billion more in funding for weapons activities during fiscal years 2022-2026 than the agency is projecting. During this period, the NNSA is planning to be simultaneously executing four to five major warhead LEPs and several major construction projects. |
The mismatch between NNSA budget projections and program plans is driven in part by the agency’s costly and controversial proposal to eventually consolidate the U.S. stockpile of nuclear warheads. First announced in June 2013, the so-called 3+2 strategy has a sticker price of roughly $60 billion and calls for shrinking... |
The NNSA argues that its modernization program is “generally affordable,” but the GAO claims the agency “does not thoroughly explain the basis for this conclusion or provide options for how potential affordability concerns…may be addressed if future funding is not increased.” |
Posted: May 31, 2017 |
Congress Limits Warhead Dismantlement |
Congress Limits Warhead Dismantlement |
June 2017 |
By Kingston Reif |
Long opposed to the Obama administration’s nuclear weapons risk reduction agenda, the Republican-controlled Congress voted in May to prevent the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from implementing the former administration’s proposal to accelerate the rate of dismantlement of retired nuclear warheads. |
Congress approved $56 million for nuclear warhead dismantlement and disposition activities, a reduction of $13 million, or 19 percent, from the Obama administration’s proposal of $69 million in its final budget request. The funding provision is part of the fiscal year 2017 omnibus appropriations bill, which President D... |
When a warhead is retired and removed from the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the NNSA, a semiautonomous agency of the Energy Department, takes the weapon apart to ensure that it can never be used again. The transition from retirement to disassembly can take years and involves a number of steps and facilities. |
In a January speech in Washington, Vice President Joe Biden stated that the Obama administration dismantled 2,226 warheads during its eight years in office. Biden also said that the queue of warheads awaiting dismantlement stood at 2,800 warheads as of September 2016. |
The Obama administration’s fiscal year 2017 budget request included funds to begin accelerating the rate of dismantlement by 20 percent pursuant to an announcement made by Secretary of State John Kerry in April 2015 at the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference in New York to further demonstrate the administ... |
But a number of Republican members of Congress strongly opposed the proposal, calling it unilateral disarmament. |
The fiscal year 2017 national defense authorization act signed by President Barack Obama last December sets an annual limit of $56 million for NNSA dismantlement expenditures in fiscal years 2017 to 2021 and prohibits spending beyond that amount unless a number of stringent conditions can be met. (See ACT, January/Febr... |
Although the House and Senate appropriations committees last year approved the Obama administration’s request to accelerate the dismantlement rate, the final funding level in the omnibus bill follows the direction in the defense authorization bill. |
The omnibus bill also includes a policy provision prohibiting the use of fiscal year 2016 funds “to reduce or to prepare to reduce” the number of deployed and nondeployed U.S. strategic nuclear delivery systems below the levels the Pentagon has said it will retain as it adjusts its forces to meet the requirements of th... |
The Obama administration last year considered reducing the size of the deployed arsenal below New START levels, but ultimately decided not to do so. (See ACT, January/February 2017.) |
Defense Spending Increased |
The omnibus appropriations bill is a nearly $1.2 trillion conglomeration of 12 appropriations bills that had to be passed to keep the government operating. For the first seven months of the fiscal year, Congress passed a series of continuing resolutions that extended funding for most discretionary governmental programs... |
The bill includes $14.8 billion of the extra $30 billion in spending requested by the Trump administration in March. The administration requested the funds as a supplement to the Obama administration’s original budget submission. |
Congress included the additional funds in the Defense Department’s overseas contingency operations account, which is nominally used to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Syria but in fact also funds other defense programs, as the account is not limited by the 2011 Budget Control Act. That act places limits on discretiona... |
The Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2018, released on May 23, includes a total of $603 billion for national defense, which includes the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons programs. This is an increase of $54 billion above the budget cap in effect for fiscal year 2018 and $19 billion, or 3 percent... |
Nuclear Modernization |
The omnibus bill largely supports the Obama administration’s proposed funding increases for programs to sustain and to rebuild nuclear-armed missiles, submarines, and bombers and their associated nuclear warheads and supporting infrastructure. (See ACT, March 2016.) |
The bill includes the requested amounts of $1.9 billion for the Navy’s Ohio-class submarine replacement program, an increase of $360 million above the fiscal year 2016 appropriation; $114 million for the Air Force’s effort to develop a replacement for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, ... |
The bill funds the nuclear-capable B-21 “Raider” bomber program at $1.3 billion, a small reduction of $20 million below the budget request level. The bill also includes a provision calling on the Defense Department’s inspector general to review the secrecy of the program. |
The Air Force has refused to release the value of the contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp. in October 2015 to develop the B-21 and the estimated total cost of the bomber program, citing classification concerns. |
The bill also provides $9.3 billion for nuclear weapons activities conducted by the NNSA, an increase of $399 million, or 4.5 percent, above the fiscal year 2016 appropriation. The appropriation for weapons activities includes $223 million to begin refurbishing the existing ALCM warhead and $616 million for the B61 nuc... |
GMD System Gets Boost |
The omnibus bill provides $968 million in research and development funding for the ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) system designed to protect the United States against a limited ICBM attack from North Korea or Iran, an increase of $106 million above the budget request level of $862 million. The increase restores f... |
The GMD system consists of interceptor sites in Alaska and California supported by radars and sensors around the globe and in space. |
Overall, the bill provides approximately $8.2 billion for the Missile Defense Agency, an increase of $700 million above the Obama administration request. |
MOX Construction Continues |
Congress provided the NNSA with $335 million to continue construction of the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, rejecting the Obama administration’s proposal to end the project. (See ACT, March 2016.) |
The MOX fuel program is designed to turn surplus plutonium from the U.S. nuclear weapons program into fuel for power reactors. |
The U.S. effort to dispose of its plutonium via the MOX fuel path has suffered from large cost increases and schedule delays that put the project in jeopardy, prompting the Obama administration to propose ending the program and instead pursue an alternative approach. The alternative “dilute and dispose” process would d... |
Despite the Energy Department’s efforts to terminate the MOX fuel project, Congress, led by the delegation from South Carolina, has refused to abandon it. Nonetheless, the bill provides $15 million, the same as the budget request and an increase of $10 million over the fiscal year 2016 level, to complete design activit... |
Overall, the bill includes $1.9 billion for NNSA fissile material security and nonproliferation efforts, an increase of $75 million above the budget request and a decrease of $57 million from the current level. |
Posted: May 31, 2017 |
Subscribe to RSS - June 2017 |
Instruments of Acceleration |
In order to implement a strategy of accelerating poverty reduction, targeted programmes are conducted. Poverty reduction programmes directly target those considered poor and vulnerable. Poverty alleviating programmes aimed at those in need are expected to be more effective. |
Cluster I poverty alleviating programmes target individual groups, the first of which being households/families. Programmes include: Family Welfare Programme (Program Keluarga Harapan, or PKH), a conditional cash transfers programme, as well as direct unconditional cash transfers and in-kind direct assistance, such as ... |
The second group of poverty alleviating programmes targets communities, and uses the principles of community driven development. An example of these programmes is the Independent Community Empowerment National Programme (Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Mandiri, or PNPM Mandiri). |
The third group targeted for poverty alleviation programmes is small and micro enterprises. The objectives of this programme is to provide economic access and empowerment to micro and small-scale entrepreneurs. |
The fourth poverty alleviation programme group aims to increase access to basic services and improve the quality of life for the poor. Programmes in this group are those which directly or indirectly can raise the economic activities and welfare of the poor. |
Are You a One-Pitch Leader? |
By: Jeff Lugerner |
Baseball season is around the corner and I couldn’t help but infuse the title of this article with some of the vernacular from our national pastime. |
In baseball, the term “one pitch pitcher” refers to a pitcher who is overly reliant on one type of pitch (fastball, curveball, etc.) to be effective. History tells us this approach has limitations and ultimately limited success. They lack the versatility in their repertoire of pitches to solve the many different kinds ... |
Now, imagine that you are the leader of an organization and have many competitors who are looking to beat you to market and/or dominate market share. Let’s take this scenario one step further and give you “one pitch capability” and we’ll give your competitors “three pitch capability” to solve all the problems that come... |
We can guess with some degree of accuracy what happened to you. Here is a short list of possibilities. |
1. You just don’t like coming out of your comfort zone. |
2. You have over-relied on a set of leadership behaviors that are not too different from each other and were greatly rewarded for this approach. It could be any set of behaviors. For our purpose we’ll choose decisiveness, hard driving and being directive. All great qualities but in the realm of leadership it translate... |
3. You greatly over value one aspect of leadership and strongly under value the opposite behavior. For example you might greatly over value decisiveness and almost completely dismiss consensus building. This could leave you very “lopsided” in this area of leadership and cause you to make a misinformed decision, leave ... |
Here is the bottom line, the executive leadership development field has really never measured/assessed for leaders overusing their strengths. More of a good thing is always better….right? In fact what’s wrong with being decisive, hard driving and directive? Nothing actually, unless you are doing it most of the time wit... |
So how do you uncover whether or not you have become a one pitch leader? |
1. Pull out your most recent 360 review and capture the themes where people have indicated you’re doing too much of a particular behavior. |
2. Now, to the best of your ability make note of what meetings and with what people you are over-doing these behaviors. |
3. In order to balance out your behaviors and “show up” differently, look to demonstrate behaviors that are at the other end of the behavioral continuum. For example if people have indicated that your point of view tends to dominate meetings you could counter that with several possibilities; that might include a)asking... |
4. Ask for feedback. Let someone you know and trust what you are working on and ask them to give you feedback on what they’ve observed. |
Your objective is to become a versatile leader who can bring the right amount of the right behavior and the right time and be the most effective leader you can be. This is not easily done and perfection is not the goal here. Becoming more versatile in your leadership approach to solving big problems is our objective. |
Let’s dialogue about this. Let me know what you have uncovered for yourself and perhaps I can come back to you with some ideas on how to bring more “pitches” to your leadership repertoire with our executive coaching services! |
Leave a Reply |
Toolkit 11.14.18 |
Clean slate toolkit: Unlocking opportunity through automated record-clearing |
States across the country are taking action to enact clean slate policies. This toolkit includes the following ways to join the campaign and take action: talking points, frequently asked questions, sample op-eds, sample letters to the editor, and sample social media and shareable graphics. |
Maps: Choreographing Fights |
In today’s post, we are going to go over choreographing fight scenes for your story. You can write them however you like, though, it is always best to have the point of view of one or two characters throughout the scene. This is especially true for the stories with a battle between armies. A fight scene with multiple p... |
As for the choreography, if you can imagine the fight in your head, you can use graphing paper and colored pencils to draw out the battle you want to tell. The graphing paper that I use has lines on the back like notebook paper, which means I can use that side for notes if I need them. As for the graph side, you can as... |
Worldbuilding 101: Mapping Layouts |
In this post, we will be talking about an element of worldbuilding called “Mapping”. This will be about mapping out the layout of rooms and buildings that your main character will see throughout their journey in your story. |
This is a really simple thing to do and all you will need is graphing paper. You can purchase graphing paper, download it into Microsoft Office programs and print it out, or draw it out yourself with blank paper and a ruler. Some of the graphing paper you can purchase have lines on the back like notebook paper, that wa... |
Using the graph paper, you can determine the measurement of the rooms and how the layout of the furniture will be situated. Using this mapping exercise, you can think of how you want the flow of the rooms to be. This is important to keep the locations of the items your character uses consistant. I have read many review... |
If your character lived next door to a bakery in one chapter, you do not want to have them living above the bakery in a other (unless they had moved within the story and it was mentioned). Having layout maps can help you look up the information you need quickly. I put mine into sheet protectors and inside a binder behi... |
Once you get the hang with creating room layouts, you can move onto bigger maps such as villages/towns/cities, countries, worlds and even galaxies! I hope you can use the information we have contributed in this post. As with other writing subjects, mapping can easily be an overlooked aspect which can easily affect your... |
Our Wine List |
Café Marmotte’s wine list shares a fundamental goal with the kitchen: to offer flavor sensations unique to our guests in Denver. In the kitchen, it means combining farm to table ingredients when possible, French and American, in new and creative ways. With wine, it’s all about finding the bottles that not only complem... |
Journals 2009/2010 |
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