Gates: Long-term outlook bleak for nuke safety - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Gates: Long-term outlook bleak for nuke safety

Potential threats make it necessary for the United States to maintain a nuclear arsenal for many years to come, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday, and called for steps to ensure the nation has the ability to build such complex weapons.

Gates, in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, embraced former President Bill Clinton’s “lead and hedge” nuclear approach. Under this approach, Gates said, the United States should take the lead in seeking to eliminate such weapons while also hedging its bets by maintaining a deterrent nuclear arsenal.

He pointed to the nuclear programs and ambitions of nations like North Korea, Iran, Russia and China as reasons Washington must take steps to ensure the nation’s existing nuclear force is ready for launch, and also make sure industry and government have the technical expertise to build new versions.

Gates quickly added the Pentagon does not consider Russia or China to be U.S. foes. But, he said, “we cannot ignore these developments.”

He called the existence of nuclear weapons a “genie that cannot be put back into the bottle.”

As for America’s existing stockpile of nuclear munitions, he said those are “safe, secure and reliable.”

But, Gates said, “the problem is the long-term prognosis — which I would characterize as bleak.”

That’s because the nation’s existing set of nukes is decades old and costly to maintain, he said. Additionally, Gates noted, the United States has not designed such a weapon since the 1980s, built one since the 1990s, or tested one since 1992.

With many scientists that worked on that last generation of U.S. nuclear arms past, at or nearing retirement age, Gates said the nation is suffering from “a brain drain” in this realm. He raised doubts about whether the U.S. industrial base in coming years will even be able to take on the task of designing and building a new nuclear force.

He urged Congress to alter its recent practice of stripping money in annual Pentagon budget requests for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program, which he said would “reinvigorate and rebuild our infrastructure and expertise.”

Under the RRW initiative, the military would attempt to build a warhead Pentagon and administration officials say would be more secure than the ones that make up Washington’s current force.

Lawmakers have raised serious concerns about the Bush administration’s RRW plans, leading them to withhold funds for the effort.

Many skeptics argue pursuing a new program would hurt Washington’s ability to keep other nations from getting “the bomb.” They say because of this, and because the nation’s existing arsenal can be maintained for 50 to 100 years, the RRW program should be delayed for some time. Still other critics simply oppose all nuclear weapons.

Gates said Pentagon and administration officials take more time to “sit down with individual members” of Congress and explain why the military considers the RRW effort a critical one.

Asked by an audience member if the Pentagon would build an RRW without new tests, Gates tersely replied, “Yes.”