I don't believe any country in the world should have weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons are, after all, so damn 20th century. But can you imagine how absurd it must look to the rest of the world when US leaders lecture them on that topic? Not only do we lead the league in numbers of WMDs, but we also are the
only country in the world that deploys nukes in foreign countries. Hardly a non-proliferation role model.
Scientists associated with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the National Resources Defense Council have spent years trying to identify the locations of our WMDs. In the FAS summary of a new report, they say:
The highest concentration of nuclear warheads is at the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific in Bangor, Washington, which is home to more than 2,300 warheads – probably the most nuclear weapons at any one site in the world. At any given moment, nearly half of these warheads are on board ballistic-missile submarines in the Pacific Ocean. Approximately 1,700 warheads are deployed on Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines operating in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and about 400 warheads are at eight bases in six European countries – Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and Great Britain . . .
The overview finds that more than two-thirds of all U.S. nuclear warheads are still stored at bases for operational ballistic missiles and bombers, even through the Cold War ended more than 16 years ago. More than 2,000 of those warheads are on high alert, ready to launch on short notice. Only about 28 percent of U.S. warheads have been moved to separate storage facilities. The largest of these, an underground vault at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, stores more than 1,900 warheads. The 10 U.S. sites that currently host nuclear weapons are: the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific, Bangor, Washington; Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada; Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming; Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico; Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana; Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota; Pantex Plant, Texas; Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana; Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri; and the Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic, Kings Bay, Georgia.
See a map of the locations here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
When I was about ten I became aware of the policy of mutually assured destruction. It is still in place after all these years. No one is making serious efforts to stand down the Russians still have hundreds if not thousands of missiles pointed at us.
When I was in sixth grade we were showed a film that showed us what to do in case of nuclear fall out. A map of the US was shown with cities that were likely to be hit by a nuclear weapon and where prevailing winds would take the fallout. I remember thinking, sure the USSR will only drop ten bombs when they have 5,000 ready to go. Childhood wasn’t all that fun during the cold war, trouble is they are still pointed at you and me 20 years later.
Post a Comment