Posted on 03/08/2007 8:30:44 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Wednesday, March 7, 2007 · Last updated 7:15 p.m. PT
Air Force scraps stealth missile fleet
By ROBERT BURNS AP MILITARY WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Air Force said Wednesday it will retire the most modern cruise missile in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, a "stealth" weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radars.
Known as the Advanced Cruise Missile, the weapon is carried by the B-52 bomber and was designed to attack heavily defended sites. It is the most capable among a variety of air-launched nuclear weapons built during the Cold War that remain in the U.S. inventory even as the Pentagon is reducing its overall nuclear arms stockpile.
The Air Force had said as recently as February 2006 that it expected to keep the missile active until 2030.
If the retirement is carried out as planned, the Advanced Cruise Missile will be the first group of U.S. nuclear weapons to be scrapped since the last of the Air Force's 50 MX Peacekeeper land-based missiles was retired in September 2005.
The decision to retire the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet has not been publicly announced. It was brought to light by Hans M. Kristensen, director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists. He noticed that funds for the program were cut in the Air Force budget request for 2008, and that no money is budgeted for it beyond 2008; when he inquired, the Air Force acknowledged the retirement decision.
An Air Force spokeswoman, Maj. Morshe Araujo, confirmed it on Wednesday. She and other Air Force public affairs officials were unable to provide additional details, including the rationale for the decision.
Araujo indicated that the retirement was part of a "balanced force reduction" being carried out to reduce the number of U.S. strategic nuclear weapons to between 1,700 and 2,200 by Dec. 31, 2012, as required under a U.S.-Russia arms reduction deal signed in Moscow in May 2002.
The treaty does not require that any specific group of nuclear weapons be retired, only that the total number in the U.S. and Russian arsenals be cut to the prescribed range of 1,700-2,200. The Russians still have a nuclear-tipped cruise missile in active service, according to Robert S. Norris, an expert in American, Soviet and Chinese nuclear weapons.
The decision to get rid of the Advanced Cruise Missile comes amid U.S. efforts to modernize what remains of the nuclear arsenal, even as it presses Iran and North Korea to abandon their nuclear programs.
Last week the Bush administration took a major step toward building a new generation of nuclear warheads, selecting a design that is being touted as safer, more secure and more easily maintained than today's arsenal. A team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will proceed with the weapons design with an anticipation that the first warheads may be ready by 2012 as a replacement for Trident missiles on submarines.
As a matter of policy the Defense Department does not confirm the location of nuclear weapons, but Kristensen and other private nuclear experts said the fleet of more than 400 Advanced Cruise Missiles is located at the only two B-52 bomber bases: Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and Barksdale Air Force Base, La.
The Air Force originally planned to field 1,500 of the missiles, which were put on the drawing board in 1982 after U.S. officials determined that its predecessor, known as the AGM-86 air-launched cruise missile, which has no stealth capabilities, would soon be too easy to detect by air- and ground-based defenses.
Kristensen said there are about 1,300 of the older air-launched nuclear cruise missiles still in the Air Force inventory.
Norris, a nuclear weapons expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said it appears likely the Air Force will further shrink its inventory of air-launched nuclear weapons in the years ahead. He estimates that there are about 3,000 air-launched gravity bombs in the nuclear arsenal, based mostly in the United States.
The other main element of the U.S. nuclear arsenal is the Navy's fleet of nuclear-armed Trident submarines.
Norris estimates that the United States now has about 5,000 strategic nuclear weapons, including the Advance Cruise Missiles, so it will take further reductions to get down to the 1,700-2,200 level set by the 2002 treaty.
Could we just use them and get our money's worth?
Araujo indicated that the retirement was part of a "balanced force reduction" being carried out to reduce the number of U.S. strategic nuclear weapons to between 1,700 and 2,200 by Dec. 31, 2012, as required under a U.S.-Russia arms reduction deal signed in Moscow in May 2002.
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So now we are pandering to Ivan, who is aiding and abetting every enemy we have?? And we choose our "top stealth CM" to scrap?? Hello Washington?? Be advised Ivan is NOT OUR FRIEND.
Maybe the guy keeping them active fell out of a window.
Sadly, the media which covers the military is probably the dumbest of all. They would suggest that you continue to pay for something after you have bought all you intend to buy.
Under their logic, I guess I should be paying for beer long ago flushed?
Exactly! Stick a small tactical nuke warhead and send them into Iran.
Let's just modify the "stealth" part so that they can be really sneaky until they get to within a mile of their target, at which super-Boze speakers open up with "Ride of the Valkeries"...
I don't expect we'll see these available at the next government auction.
Can the be fitted with conventional explosives warheads and used up somewhere?
Where is an exercise left to the reader...
I like the way you think. (Although the Viking Kitties' theme song would work, too)....
That is something I can whole heartedly agree with.
I would put a big happy face on one of them.
Russia builds up as we build down.
I hope they know what they're doing.....
Also, the only aircraft which can carry the ACM is the B-52, and there are serious considerations to finally retire the BUFF fleet.
Someone will remember this madness when the Russians and Chinese blow our decadent nation out of its slumber.
But that will be too late.
Absolute insanity.
We need:
1. New, mobile, more powerful ICBM's
2. A whole new fleet of bombers. Some on 24 hour alert.
3. A couple of Looking Glass and TACAMO's on duty at all times.
4. A new fleet of Stealth SSBN's.
5. Hardened and survivable orbital satellites.
6. Several new types of nuclear warheads.
7. A testing program to make sure that they work.
8. 5000 MORE stealth cruise missles.
9. Layered ABM defences for the homeland.
10. About 200,000 prison cells to hold the treasonous Democrats/socialists/liberals who would protest 1-9 above until they are executed for treason.
11. Some leaders who love our country more than their future consulting/speaking/business fees/bribes/payola.
This is the begining of the final act of the United States.
Enjoy it!
Is this because a far cheaper JDAM or SLAM can do the same job?
Don't I have a second amendment right to own one if I can afford it?
Probably because those weapons are cheaper & more versatile with launch from multiple platforms.
*sigh* Yeah. 100% right on!
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