White House Strains For B61 Bomb Request
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By Michael Bruno
The Obama administration is making its mark with a desire to reduce nuclear weaponry, but it is running up against more help than it wants on Capitol Hill, with the White House now trying to defend its fiscal 2010 request for a major legacy U.S. nuclear bomb.
A White House Office of Management and Budget statement of administrative policy warned July 14 that a House Appropriations Committee move to cut $65 million for a B61 refurbishment study in FY ’10 would essentially end efforts toward replacing end-of-life components. The House of Representatives was expected to vote on the so-called energy and water appropriations bill, which includes funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and nuclear warheads, starting the same day.
“Without refurbishment of these components, the sustainment of the B61 bomb family, a key component of our deterrence strategy, will be in jeopardy,” the White House claimed.
House appropriators acknowledge that the B61 is “particularly in need of a clearly articulated strategy.” But like many lawmakers across the Hill, they first want to see an overarching strategic weaponry strategy — a demand that Democrats in particular have been enunciating since before they started to take over Congress in 2006. Since the executive branch has not provided the Hill with such information, the committee said in its report accompanying the spending bill that it would not fund the requested the B61 Phase 6.2/2A Refurbishment Study.
“The committee will not support a major warhead redesign in the absence of clearly defined nuclear weapons strategy, stockpile and complex plans,” the appropriators said.
The B61 is in need of more work, nonpartisan congressional researchers agree, but it has also had a troubled history this decade. Although NNSA completed refurbishment of strategic variants of the B61 bomb — Mods 7 and 11 — on schedule in November 2008, the refurbished weapons still do not meet all refurbishment objectives, according to a March report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Moreover, NNSA refurbished less than one-third of the weapons in the original baseline for almost twice the unit cost.
NNSA and U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) were able to meet new requirements only after the Nuclear Weapons Council slashed the definition of what was needed from a B61 stockpile by two-thirds, allowing for material from dismantled tactical warheads to be used in refurbishing others instead of NNSA having to provide alternative material.
Citing NNSA and Defense Department officials, GAO said NNSA established an unrealistic schedule and failed to fully implement its Phase 6.X refurbishment guidance. But blame is further shared by STRATCOM for taking two years to communicate to NNSA that an older requirement was no longer needed, as well as the fact that DOD’s testing conditions had changed. The Air Force’s lead project officer also was sanctioned for “poor technical and managerial expertise.”
NNSA said early this year that it completed the life-extension program for two versions of the B61 bomb, according to a February report from the Congressional Research Service. Yet GAO said NNSA has agreed to conduct more tests through 2009. “Importantly, these tests will be completed after all the B61 bombs now being refurbished are back in the stockpile,” GAO notes.
Photo: Wikipedia
