Nuclear Weapons – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jun 13
2020

Are AI-Powered Killer Robots Inevitable?

Autonomous weapons present some unique challenges to regulation. They can’t be observed and quantified in quite the same way as, say, a 1.5-megaton nuclear warhead. Just what constitutes autonomy, and how much of it should be allowed? How do you distinguish an adversary’s remotely piloted drone from one equipped with Terminator software? Unless security analysts can find satisfactory answers to these questions and China, Russia, and the US can decide on mutually agreeable limits, the march of automation will continue. And whichever way the major powers lead, the rest of the world will inevitably follow.

Military scholars warn of a “battlefield singularity,” a point at which humans can no longer keep up with the pace of conflict.

Jun 9
2020

Russia will open nuclear disarmament talks with US

But Moscow warns against insisting on including China in New Start negotiations.

May 29
2020

This Atomic Tank survived a nuclear test, then went to war

In August of 1953, a British-built Centurion tank drove through the brutal desert terrain of South Australia, its destination a parking spot a few hundred yards from an atomic bomb test. That was just the beginning of this tank’s amazing, and perhaps tragic, operational life.

Apr 22
2020

Quantum Communication Could Make U.S. Subs Even More Deadly

University researchers have discovered that quantum communications are possible with submerged objects in turbulent water. The revelation means it might someday be possible for the National Command Authority to use quantum communications to securely communicate with underwater submarines, particularly those that make up part of the nuclear triad.

Apr 15
2020

Possible Chinese Nuclear Testing Stirs U.S. Concern

China might be secretly conducting nuclear tests with very low explosive power despite Beijing’s assertions that it is strictly adhering to an international accord banning all nuclear tests, according to a new arms-control report to be made public by the State Department.

The coming report doesn’t present proof that China is violating its promise to uphold the agreement, but it cites an array of activities that “raise concerns” that Beijing might not be complying with the “zero-yield” nuclear-weapons testing ban.

Apr 15
2020

The Coronavirus Can’t Stop America’s Nukes

As the world fights against the COVID-19 pandemic, nuclear weapons have taken a backseat in most people’s minds. But for Global Strike Command (AFGSC)—the Air Force unit in control of two of the three legs of America’s nuclear triad—their mission remains top priority.

And it’s an unforgiving business. Nuclear deterrence requires extreme levels of readiness among pilots, maintenance crews, and security teams. Adversaries that don’t think the U.S. can respond with conventional bombing strikes or nukes could be emboldened to act aggressively.

But in a War of the Worlds-style twist, humanity’s most lethal weapons could be nullified by an organism that can’t even be seen. It’s up to the AFGSC to make sure that never happens.

Mar 15
2020

2017 North Korean nuclear test

North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test on 3 September 2017, stating it had tested a thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb).^[6].

Jan 22
2020

North Korea’s Nuclear Bomb Is Much Bigger than Previously Thought

A new look at 2017 test data reveals an explosion 16 times as powerful than the one that leveled Hiroshima.

Scientists looking anew at a 2017 North Korean nuclear test discovered that the explosion was likely about two-thirds more powerful than U.S. officials previously thought.

Earlier data put the yield somewhere between 30 and 300 kilotons; the U.S. intelligence community said 140 kilotons. That was already the most powerful device tested by North Korea, topping a 2016 test by about an order of magnitude. But a new look at seismological data suggests that the blast was between 148 and 328 kilotons, and probably around 250 kilotons.

Aug 5
2019

Dr. Wendy Dean, M.D., Senior Vice President of Program Operations, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine — ideaXme — Ira Pastor

Jun 20
2019

Going Nuclear Over the Pacific

Starfish Prime was a July 9, 1962 high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States, a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Defense Atomic Support Agency.