Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Air Force official who oversees the U.S. nuclear bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile fleets on Jan. 20 said “nothing is off the table” in ongoing industry-government discussions to build a “faster, better, smarter” intercontinental ballistic missile system to follow the Minuteman 3. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center is […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 A top Defense Department official last week identified a point of bilateral contention in the New START Treaty as a factor in U.S. deployment plans for the Long Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO).  “We did make an effort to address nuclear-armed cruise missiles in New START, and we didn’t have a […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Maj. Gen. Michael Fortney, Air Force Global Strike Command Director of Operations, last week said the Long-Range Strike Bomber will incorporate elements that will allow the aircraft to be nuclear-certified two years after conventional initial operating capacity (IOC), which is slated for the mid-2020s. “It’s going to be built with […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 More than three dozen Air Force senior leaders convened at Minot AFB on Feb. 20 for the quarterly meeting of the Nuclear Oversight Board (NOB), whose creation was announced by former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in November, days before announcing his resignation, according to an Air Force press release. “We […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Weeks after the Obama Administration requested hefty funding increases to fuel the acceleration of cruise missile warhead procurement from Fiscal Year 2027 to 2025, a former Democratic staffer on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee thinks the project could be in danger. “Whether you believe the cruise missile is […]

NNSA Completes Work on Y-12 Facilities Upgrade Project NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration has wrapped up work on a Y-12 National Security Complex project designed to upgrade a pair of aging facilities—Buildings 9212 and 9204-2E—and it said it has done it nearly 11 months ahead of schedule and $5.6 million under budget. […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 The top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee vowed this week to push back against House leadership plans to set funding levels for the nation’s strategic and nuclear forces at sequestration levels, with Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), the ranking member of the subcommittee, suggesting such […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 A decision by the Nuclear Weapons Council to “refresh” the conventional high explosives (CHE) in the W88 warhead as part of a previously planned replacement of the warhead’s arming, fuzing and firing mechanism will push back the completion of a First Production Unit on the Navy portion of a planned […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 The Defense Department is reviewing the top three modernization plans of each leg of the nuclear triad as officials grapple with a tight budget environment while nuclear weapon systems are aging out of their service lives and modernization bills are coming due, according to the Navy’s top enlisted official. During […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 The Department of Energy should incentivize contractors through performance and award fee or risk losing competition on procurements, industry executives said last week in a roundtable discussion at the seventh annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit. The discussion comes as the Department is undertaking a new contract management strategy that includes moving […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Past performance is likely to remain heavily weighted in future National Nuclear Security Administration management-and-operating procurements, but decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis, NNSA Acquisition and Project Management chief Bob Raines said last week. Speaking on the sidelines of the Seventh Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, Raines declined to […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Already holding a dominant position among the Department of Energy’s science and energy labs, Battelle is eyeing a possible enhanced role in the nuclear weapons complex. Ron Townsend, Battelle’s executive vice president for global laboratory operations, acknowledged last week that Battelle—billed as the world’s largest private nonprofit research and development […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Retired Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler, the former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, last week emphatically championed sweeping investments in nuclear command, control and communications (NC3), and cautioned against segregating individual NC3 components from funding. Speaking at the annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit Feb. 20, Kehler joined a group of active […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 The Air Force is expanding its five-year nuclear enterprise funding portfolio to foster morale, equipment, and modernization improvements, as the service has programmed an additional $5.6 billion in the Fiscal Year 2016-2020 Future Years Defense Program over last year’s FYDP projection, the top Air Force official told Senators this week. […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 A top official at Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Bechtel-led partnership that manages the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants under a combined contract, said last week that there’s “not much flexibility at this point” for moving funds back and forth between the Tennessee and Texas plants. Dave Beck, vice president […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told House appropriators this week that about $200 million in additional funding would be needed in Fiscal Year 2016 and beyond above the President’s budget request for optimal construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. Testifying before the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Feb. […]

NNSA to Complete Seismic Review of Los Alamos PF-4 by Mid-March NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration expects to complete its review of the seismic vulnerabilities of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility (PF-4) by mid-March, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said in a Feb. 13 letter to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The review […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 The Department of Energy is considering establishing a committee to help prioritize infrastructure needs across the DOE complex, a senior Office of Science official told a panel examining the effectiveness of the Department’s national laboratories this week. Joseph McBrearty, the Office of Science’s Deputy Director for Field Operations, stressed that […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Operating income for B&W’s Technical Services Group took a significant dip in the fourth quarter of 2014, dropping to $345,000—$10 million less than during the fourth quarter of 2013—as B&W dealt with the loss of its Y-12 and Pantex management and operating contracts and lower fee from weapons complex sites […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is prepared to boost spending on its Newport News, Va., shipyard to support Ohio-class Replacement (ORP) development as the parallel procurement timelines of that program and Virginia-class submarine are expected to require greater capital expenditures, HII CEO Mike Petters said last week. “As the submarine industrial […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) raised concerns during a Feb. 25 hearing of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee about the proposed expansion of the Powder River Training Complex (PRTC) overlying parts of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. The Air Force on Jan. 16 approved nearly quadrupling the complex, which is used […]

NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY CH2M Hill shareholders late last week approved a proposal that would allow the company to seek minority investment from outside investors. The proposal, as outlined in a proxy statement issued last month, involves the elimination of the “prohibition on the issuance of common stock, directly or indirectly, to persons […]

NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 IN THE NNSA The National Nuclear Security Administration has raised the ceiling on its Design, Integration, Construction, Communication, and Engineering (DICCE) services multiple-award contract from $700 million to $790 million, allowing existing work for the NNSA’s Office of Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence to continue. In separate sole source justifications for the […]

Y-12 to Replace Plant Shift Superintendent Office NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 There are multiple infrastructure improvements under way or planned at the Y-12 National Security Complex, in some cases replacing World War II-era structures. Some projects are moving forward, while others spin their wheels. It appears now that one of several proposed projects to upgrade the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 Industry officials appear to be concerned about potential impacts that government inspection requirements could have on the delivery schedule for Reentry Field Support Equipment (RFSE) that supports work on the Minuteman 3 re-entry systems prior to attaching the system to the missile, according to a set of questions-and-answers for the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) wants a New Mexico-based consortium to run at least one of the nuclear weapons laboratories in his state, and he urged the state legislature, Gov. Susana Martinez (R), New Mexico universities and local industry this week to consider making a run for one of the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 Sequestration cuts would have a “devastating” and wide-ranging impact on the work of the National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said this week. Speaking Feb. 18 at the Seventh Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington, Klotz referred to the across-the-board sequestration cuts that would go into effect in […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 After keeping its plans quiet for weeks, Babcock & Wilcox said today that it is bidding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City National Security Campus management-and-operating contract. B&W led teams that ran the NNSA’s Y-12 and Pantex plants up until last year, but after its defeat to Bechtel-led […]