Budget Cuts And Brain Drain = “Bleak” U. S. Defense Future

U. S. Will Soon Be Generation Behind In Scientists

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Tuesday for the modernization of the US nuclear arsenal to strengthen deterrence at a time when Russia and China are upgrading their nuclear weapons. "Currently, the United States is the only declared nuclear power that is neither modernizing its nuclear arsenal nor has the capability to produce a new nuclear weapon." Critics were quick to hop on Gates calling his proposal contrary to the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

"To be blunt, there is absolutely no way we can maintain a credible deterrent and reduce the number of weapons in our stockpile without resorting to testing our stockpile or pursuing a modernization program," he said.

Gates said the development of a new so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead was needed to ensure the long-term viability of the US stockpile and to revive a nuclear industrial base that is in decline.

To add teeth to deterrence, Gates said, the United States is pursuing new technologies that can identifiy "forensic signatures" of any nuclear material used in an attack and trace it back to its source. Such forensic signature would ensure identifying any country that used a nuclear weapon. Congress cut funding this year for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, and candidates from both major political parties have called for deeper cuts in the US arsenal and defense budget.

The United States and Russia agreed in 2002 to reduce "operationally deployed" warheads to around 1,700-2,200 by 2012. As of January 1, 2008, the United States had about 5,400 warheads in its nuclear arsenal, about 4,075 of which were operational and most of the others held in reserve, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

"There is no way to ignore efforts by rogue states such as North Korea and Iran to develop and deploy nuclear weapons, or Russian and Chinese strategic modernization programs," Gates said.

Russia budget problems and now collapsing crude oil prices has made it unable to maintain its conventional forces at Cold War levels. So it is increasingly reliant on its nuclear forces and maintains a fully functional capacity to manufacture significant numbers of nuclear warheads, he said.

" China is also expanding its nuclear arsenal. It has increased the number of short, medium and long-range missiles — and pursued new land, sea, and air-based systems that can deliver nuclear weapons," Gates said. He sees a bleak future because of a nuclear brain drain . “No one has designed a new nuclear weapon in the United States since the 1980s, and no one has built a new one since the early 1990s," said.

Clinton era budget cuts resulted in the National Nuclear Security Administration losing a quarter of its workforce since the 1990s, and half of the scientists at US nuclear labs are over 50 years old. The proposed budget cuts is spreading a sense of despair throughout the defense and military communities.