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bananas

(27,509 posts)
Tue Jul 31, 2012, 01:53 PM Jul 2012

A Golden Mistake: The B61-12 is the most expensive nuclear warhead in U.S. history

http://www.ploughshares.org/blog/2012-07-30/golden-mistake

A Golden Mistake
By Benjamin Loehrke
July 30, 2012

The B61 life extension program gets a gold medal for setting records as the most expensive nuclear warhead in U.S. history. It also gets another ignominious recognition – costing more than its weight in solid gold.

The B61 bombs are the oldest bombs in the operational arsenal – first deployed in the 1960s. The Life Extension Program is intended to update and overhaul the warheads to keep them in the arsenal for decades to come, allowing the B61 to continue serving as the last remaining tactical nuclear warhead in the arsenal. The bombs remain deployed in Europe, despite broad recognition that they have no military utility.

Unfortunately, the life extension program (LEP) for the B-61 nuclear bomb is now projected to cost $10 billion. When we first heard that, some quipped that the bomb must be gold-plated. It's not. That would be too cheap.

<snip>

For a bomb that has no place in a 21st century military strategy, $10 billion might be too much to pay. Instead of extending the B61's life, wouldn't it make more sense to let it finish its golden years in the dismantlement queue?


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A Golden Mistake: The B61-12 is the most expensive nuclear warhead in U.S. history (Original Post) bananas Jul 2012 OP
Might as Well as Spend it on Nukes Macoy51 Jul 2012 #1
 

Macoy51

(239 posts)
1. Might as Well as Spend it on Nukes
Tue Jul 31, 2012, 02:53 PM
Jul 2012

True, but you can do a lot more with a nuclear weapon than you can with $18 million in gold. That much gold won’t even level a small city. And the only way you can use the gold to kill people would be to drop it on top of them like a rock.

And with free health care, world class schools and a great safety net already fully funded in America, what else would we possible use the money for? So we might as well as spend it on nukes.


Macoy

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