North Korea:  Washington Seeks Interdiction of North Korean Weapons

The United States and its Northeast Asian allies are planning to monitor North Korean shipping in an attempt to stop nuclear material from entering the country and missile technology from leaving it, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, June 9).

The White House is hoping to use “selective interdiction” to reduce the income North Korea allegedly derives from selling arms and illegal drugs, according to officials (see GSN, May 19).

To avoid questions about the legality of stopping and searching North Korean ships the program “will be focused on those activities which require no additional laws, no international treaties, no going to the United Nations Security Council,” said a senior U.S. official.  “Look at the Japanese, who can’t stop transfers of money on North Korean ships, but suddenly discovered they can do ‘safety inspections,’” the official added.

Officials will not make any formal announcement of the new interdiction policy, and they will attempt to avoid a direct confrontation, the Times reported (David Sanger, New York Times, June 10).

“This does not mean we are on our way to war,” said Secretary of State Colin Powell, “We are not.”

Powell played down North Korea’s statement yesterday that it is seeking nuclear weapons.

“They said things like this before,” Powell said.  “They’ve said they have nuclear weapons, and today they seem to be saying they would develop nuclear weapons,” he added (Agence France-Presse, June 10).

Last week, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said Washington was discussing the plan to cut off shipping lanes to North Korea’s alleged importing and exporting of weapons.

“As we close off proliferation networks, we will inevitably intercept related criminal activity and overlapping smuggling rings,” Bolton said (Andrew Ward, Financial Times, June 10).

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Iran:  Tehran Admits Secret Uranium Imports

Iran has admitted that it secretly imported uranium from China more than a decade ago, an action that failed to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, according to a recently released document from the International Atomic Energy Agency (see GSN, June 6).  The report was distributed to diplomats prior to a June 16 IAEA meeting (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, June 6).

“Iran has failed to meet its obligations under its safeguards agreement with respect to the reporting of nuclear material, the subsequent processing and use of that material and the declaration of facilities where the material was stored and processed,” the document says.

Specifically, the report says Iran imported 1.8 metric tons of natural uranium, an amount that is “not insignificant in terms of a state’s ability to conduct nuclear research and development activities,” according to the report.

The report says, “Iran has acknowledged the production of uranium metal, uranyl nitrate, ammonium uranyl carbonates, UO2 [uranium dioxide] pellets and uranium wastes”

Summarizing, the report says, “the number of failures by Iran to report the material, facilities and activities in question in a timely manner as it is obliged to do pursuant to its safeguards agreement is a matter of concern” (Reuters/Planet Ark, June 9). 

On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, “the report and Iran’s programs themselves are deeply troubling” (State Department transcript, June 6).

Iranian officials admitted that they did not report the uranium imports but they said Iran did not violate any international nuclear agreements.

“There is no mention of the word ‘violation,’” said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.  “The report only mentions ‘failure,’ which is still a legal debate between us.  And these are normal differences,” he added (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Raleigh News and Observer, June 8).

Aghazadeh maintained that the 1991 incident does not reflect on Iran’s current compliance.

“The report goes back to 12 years ago and has nothing to do with the organization’s current activities in the nuclear sector,” he added (Reuters/Moscow Times, June 9).

Iranian officials said that the report actually shows Tehran is cooperating with the international atomic agency.

“This report, like other reports by the agency’s chief, bears legal points and indicates Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization’s transparent interaction with the IAEA,” said organization spokesman Khalil Moosavi.  “America is repeating its claims against Iran … repeating such claims does not mean being able to prove them,” he added (Parinoosh Arami, Reuters, June 7).

Nuclear experts said the report might force Iran to act.

“It puts Iran on notice,” said David Albright, a former IAEA inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security.  “There’s a clock ticking, and Iran cannot delay answering to the IAEA much longer,” he added (Warrick, Washington Post).

Spent Fuel Agreement Close

Iran is prepared to sign an agreement to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia, according to the Iranian ambassador to Moscow.  Russia has said it will not supply nuclear fuel to Iran until Tehran formally agrees to return it after it is exhausted.

“Iran is willing, even now, to sign this protocol, and all we are waiting for in this respect is the elimination of the problems of an environmental nature connected with this implementation of this document on the Russian side,” said Gholamreza Shafe’i.  The agreement “has already been agreed by the two sides and the relevant ministers are to sign it,” he added (Interfax, June 6 in FBIS-SOV, June 5).

The ambassador was less decisive about Iran’s accession to the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement, designed to give U.N. nuclear inspectors the right to conduct more stringent inspections.

“The protocol stipulates certain commitments on our part, but we must have some rights as well,” he said (Interfax II, June 6 in FBIS-SOV, June 5).

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North Korea:  Pyongyang Publicly Admits Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons

In a state-run news agency commentary, North Korea has for the first time publicly admitted that it is seeking nuclear weapons, Reuters reported today (see GSN, June 6).

“We are not trying to possess a nuclear deterrent in order to blackmail others, but we are trying to reduce conventional weapons and divert our human and monetary resources to economic development and improve the living standards of the people,” said a statement from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (Martin Nesirky, Reuters, June 9).

The statement is the first public acknowledgment of what is commonly accepted by many, said Yu Suk-ryul of the South Korean Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, which is connected to the Foreign Ministry.

“Reading between the lines, it looks as though they see that Washington has not been as scared as they had hoped by their threats of the past eight months,” Yu said.

Former South Korean Ambassador Park Soo-gil said the announcement is a “joke.”  He doubted that North Korea sought nuclear weapons to lower conventional forces, instead calling the move an attention-grabbing stunt.

“North Korea began to strip its clothes off a while ago and nobody is paying as much attention to the strip show anymore,” Park said (Charles Whelan, Agence France-Presse, June 9).

Security Causes North Korea to Suspend Ferry

Pyongyang today cut off ferry service to Japan after Tokyo began increasing inspections of North Korean boats and freighters, the New York Times reported.

The ferry arrived in the Japanese port of Niigata Monday and was met by 1,900 Japanese law enforcement officials.  The Japanese group included police officers and officials from the Transport, Health, Justice and Finance ministries.

This summer, the extensive inspections will be applied to North Korean cargo ships, according to the New York Times.

“We are going to keep a really severe eye on the North Korean ships,” said Taro Kono, a governing party member of Japan’s Parliament.  “We are not going to allow narcotics to come into Japan.  We are not going to allow missile parts to go back to North Korea,” he added (James Brooke, New York Times, June 9).

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Georgia:  Country Ratifies IAEA Safeguards Agreement, Additional Protocol

Georgia has ratified a safeguards agreement reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations announced last week (see GSN, Oct. 28, 2002).  In addition, Georgia has also ratified an Additional Protocol to its safeguards agreement, giving the agency even greater authority to monitor nuclear activity.

So far, 46 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty members have failed to complete safeguards agreements with the IAEA, the United Nations said in a press release.  In addition, 77 countries that have such agreements have not yet ratified Additional Protocols, including 21 countries known to have significant nuclear programs.

“There has been incremental progress, but the number of safeguards agreements and Additional Protocols actually in force continues to be well below expectations,” IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement.  “I reiterate my call on all states that have not done so to conclude these instruments and bring them into force,” he said (U.N. release, June 6).

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Iran:  Another Official Denies Pause in Russian Aid

Contrary to reports from U.S. and British officials, Russia will not discontinue its nuclear assistance to Iran, a Russian spokesman said yesterday (see GSN, June 5).

U.S. officials and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to stop nuclear assistance to Iran until Tehran agreed to tougher nuclear inspections.

However, Putin never promised to discontinue the assistance, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko.

A leading Russian lawmaker visited Washington this week and questioned U.S. claims that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, the Washington Times reported today.

“Your CIA said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  We never thought so in Russia, and so far nothing has been found,” said Dmitry Rogozin, the chairman of the Russian Duma’s committee on international affairs.  “Now the CIA makes the same claim for Iran.  How on earth can we give them our trust one more time when they just made such a mistake?” he asked.

Rogozin said that Russia genuinely believes that they are not aiding Tehran’s alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.

“We are not so insane as to set up a time bomb under our own chairs,” he said.

Yakovenko said Russia will continue to seek an agreement to require Iran to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia.

Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency reported this week that Gholamreza Aqazadeh, the top Iranian nuclear official, is scheduled to travel to Moscow next month to finalize the completion of the Bushehr nuclear plant, now under construction with Russian assistance.

U.S. officials continue to allege that Iran is developing a clandestine nuclear weapons program, according to the Times.

“The conclusion is inescapable that Iran is pursuing its ‘civil’ nuclear energy program not for peaceful and economic purposes but as a front for developing the capability to produce nuclear materials for nuclear weapons,” said U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton.

Rogozin, however, was perplexed by the U.S. stance.

“We genuinely do not understand what the Americans want from us,” he said (David Sands, Washington Times, June 6).

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North Korea:  South Korea Will Not Develop Nuclear Weapons

South Korean Prime Minister Goh Kun said yesterday that South Korea will not develop nuclear weapons in response to North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions (see GSN, June 5).

“We stick to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty given that South Korea is under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella,” Goh said (Joo Sang-min, Korea Herald, June 6).

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said, however, that Japan might develop nuclear weapons in response to North Korea, and that could spark a regional arms race.

“If Japan becomes determined in its bid to develop nuclear arms for certain reasons, there will be growing calls for a military buildup,” Roh said.  “Military buildup efforts will begin amid growing distrust and antagonism, and we should deeply consider what to do to cope with future developments,” he added (Korea Times, June 6).

U.S. Will Rotate Troops Near DMZ

Although the United States has announced it will withdraw its forces from South Korea’s demilitarized zone with North Korea, troops will rotate through training zones near the border, the New York Times reported today.

The bulk of U.S. forces will be stationed at bases 75 miles south of Seoul, but the training zones near the border will continue the forward U.S. presence, according to the Times (Howard French, New York Times, June 6).

Weldon Reports on Pyongyang Visit

U.S. Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), fresh off a visit to North Korea, said Pyongyang claims to have nuclear weapons, according to a recent entry in the Congressional Record.

Weldon said, however, that he believes the nuclear confrontation can be resolved.

“We are in a tense situation right now, because North Korea has admitted publicly in our meetings that we held that they have nuclear weapons today.  They admitted that they are reprocessing the 8,000 nuclear rods from their nuclear power plants and they admitted that that reprocessed nuclear weapons-grade fuel will be used to build more nuclear weapons,” he said.  “I came away convinced that we, in fact, can find a way to get the North Koreans to give up their nuclear capability,” he added.

Weldon also said that using an economic embargo or military action to resolve the situation would be “unacceptable” (Curt Weldon, Nautilus Institute release, June 5).

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United States:  NNSA Laser Sets Beam Quality Record

A developing U.S. laser, designed to help the National Nuclear Security Administration maintain the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile without underground testing, recently broke a world record for laser performance, the NNSA announced yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 31, 2002).

The laser, housed at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, produced 10.4 kiloJoules of ultraviolet light in a single laser beam, according to the NNSA.

“The NIF project has demonstrated excellent management and technical performance under very demanding circumstances.  NIF continues surpassing expectations and is now breaking world records.  It is well on its way to becoming one of the jewels of NNSA and the nuclear weapons complex,” said NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks.

The laser was focused into a system designed to precisely measure laser beam quality.  Officials plan to use the laser’s energy to recreate the extreme temperatures and pressure associated with nuclear explosions.  When fully activated, NIF will provide 50 times more energy than any other laser system and will be a cornerstone of the NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program without underground nuclear testing.

“We have met or exceeded all current required milestones in the baseline established three years ago.  We have now demonstrated on a per-beam basis the critical performance criteria of NIF.  These accomplishments show that NIF is ready to fulfill the promise of its vital role in maintaining the viability of U.S. nuclear deterrent through the Stockpile Stewardship Program,” said NIF Associated Director George Miller (NNSA release, June 5).

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North Korea:  Hu Says North Korea Interested in Multilateral Talks

During a meeting Sunday, Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. President George W. Bush that North Korea is willing to participate in multilateral talks to defuse the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula, Kyodo News Agency reported today (see GSN, June 4).

North Korea has long said it wants one-on-one talks with the United States, while Washington has insisted on a multilateral format.

Hu and Bush met during the Group of Eight summit in Evian, France.  Hu told Bush that North Korea wants “some sort of bilateral contacts as the price for a multilateral meeting,” according to a Bush administration official.

“If it means the North Koreans sitting at a table with two or three or four other parties, look us in the eye and say what’s on their mind, if you want to consider that a bilateral contact, then, sure, that will happen,” according to the official (Kyodo News Agency, June 5).

U.S. Plans to Consolidate

The United States will move a key military facility out of Seoul by the end of the year, United Press International reported today.  The 37,000 U.S. military personnel in South Korea are stationed in roughly 100 bases throughout the country.  As part of the developing plan, all U.S. forces will be consolidated into three large bases south of Seoul, according to Seoul’s Assistant Defense Minister for Policy Cha Young-koo.

U.S. defense officials also plan to move 15,000 U.S. military personnel away from the North Korean border in a two-stage plan that will unfold over several years, according to UPI (Jong-Heon Lee, United Press International, June 5).

U.S. Will Not Pay, Bolton Says

Meanwhile, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said yesterday that Washington will not pay for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

“We continue to insist that North Korea must terminate its nuclear weapons program completely, verifiably and irreversibly,” Bolton said.  “And there will be no inducements to get them to do so,” he added.

Bolton said that paying North Korea would encourage other countries around the world to develop nuclear weapons.

“We are not going to pay for the elimination of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program — a program the North should never have begun in the first place,” he said.

Bolton added, however, that “assistance would be provided to North Korea” if Pyongyang “addresses concerns about its WMD and missile program and exports, as well as other issues, including its conventional force disposition, narcotics trafficking, human rights and its continued sponsorship of terrorism outside its borders” (Agence France-Presse, June 5).

Defector Says South Korean Officials Used Intimidation Tactics

A North Korean defector claims in a Wall Street Journal commentary that South Korean officials intimidated his wife after he testified to a U.S. congressional committee on Pyongyang’s weapons programs (see GSN, May 21).

Using the pseudonym Bok Koo Lee, the defector wrote that South Korean officials have been pressuring him not to divulge information since he arrived in South Korea four years ago.

“It soon became obvious that they feared my testimony because it might jeopardize South Korea’s ‘sunshine policy,’ which seeks to keep the North’s repressive regime in power in order to avoid the economic consequences to the South were it to collapse,” Bok wrote.

Bok alleged that North Korean agents were in Iraq during the first Gulf War on “an operational war basis for Saddam Hussein.”  He wrote that he had traveled to Iran to test launch a missile equipped with a new guidance system.

Bok also wrote that 90 percent of electronic and guidance material for North Korean missiles comes from Japanese exports.  Implicating a tentative U.S. ally, Bok wrote that 60 Russian scientists work in North Korea to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

South Korean officials stopped harassing Bok’s wife after several U.S. lawmakers intervened, according to Bok.

Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) and Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) stepped in and stopped the intimidation, “for the moment,” he wrote (Bok Ku Lee, Wall Street Journal, June 5).

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Iran:  Officials Disagree Over Russian Conditions for Nuclear Aid

Contradicting recent statements from Western officials, senior Russian officials denied yesterday that they would condition Russian nuclear aid to Iran on Tehran’s acceptance of more intrusive international monitoring, according to reports (see GSN, June 4).

The confusion occurred at the same time the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that its inspectors would begin a one-week visit to Iran Saturday to follow up on their February visit (see GSN, Feb. 24).  This new inspection comes just days before IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei is scheduled to brief the agency’s board of governors on his assessment of Iran’s nuclear activities.  The briefing is scheduled for June 16, but board members are due to receive advance copies next week (Yuri Kozlov, ITAR-Tass, June 5).

Yesterday, Russian officials said they planned to supply Tehran with uranium fuel for a nuclear power plant currently under construction, even if Iran does not sign the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement.  The protocol would allow the IAEA to conduct more intrusive inspections and monitoring activity in Iran.

The Russian remarks contradicted statements remarks made yesterday by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.  Speaking before Parliament following the Group of Eight summit, Blair said Russian President Vladimir Putin had “made it clear” that until Iran signed the protocol, “Russia would suspend its exports of nuclear fuel to Iran” (see GSN, June 3; Michael Wines, New York Times, June 5).

Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev, however, said yesterday, “There is no link” (Agence France-Presse, June 5). 

He said Russia would begin supplying nuclear fuel to Iran as soon as Tehran signed an agreement promising to return the spent fuel to Russia.  “We are at a technical stage of issuing an additional agreement with Iran on the return of supplied nuclear fuel after it has been used for a required period of time,” he said.

“After that, there will be no obstacles to supplies of fresh nuclear fuel to Iran,” Rumyantsev added.

Iran is urging Russia to accelerate the construction of the Bushehr nuclear reactor, Rumyantsev said yesterday.  A storage site for nuclear fuel, complete with “many layers of physical protection,” has been completed and fuel deliveries could begin as soon as February, he said (Wines, New York Times).

Future construction efforts at the Bushehr plant, however, could hinge on Iran’s acceptance of the Additional Protocol, according to Putin’s top economic advisor Andrei Illarionov.

Iran’s signature of the Additional Protocol would be “the best way to remove all questions and suspicions,” Illarionov said.  “When the IAEA concludes that Iran does not have any military nuclear program, Russia will be able to restore normal times with this country,” he added (Peter Baker, Washington Post, June 5).

U.S. Attack on Iran Would Be “Suicide,” Ayatollah Says

Meanwhile, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that a U.S. attack on Iran would be “suicide” (see GSN, June 3).

“The American threats are not new.  They have threatened us since the beginning of the Islamic revolution,” Khamenei said.  “They know that militarily attacking Iran and the Iranian nation would mean suicide for the aggressor,” he said (Business Recorder, June 5).

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Russia:  U.S. Missile Defenses Could Scuttle Moscow Treaty, Russian Lawmaker Says

The U.S. development of a national missile defense system could lead Russia to withdraw from the U.S.-Russian Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which just entered into force this week, a senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday (see GSN, June 2).

If the United States develops a missile defense system that “substantially affects our security,” Russia’s response could include a withdrawal from the Moscow Treaty, said Army Gen. Andrei Nikolayev, chairman of the State Duma’s defense committee.  “The ratification law makes provision for this,” Nikolayev said (ITAR-Tass, June 3 in FBIS-SOV, June 3).

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United States:  Former Air Force Chief of Staff Approves of Nuclear Weapons Commission

A former U.S. Air Force chief of staff yesterday endorsed the creation of a national commission to develop an overall strategy for the U.S. nuclear arsenal, according to Aerospace Daily.

The commission, included in a version of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, would help to “focus attention” on nuclear weapons programs, which require long-term planning, said retired Gen. Larry Welch (see GSN, May 23).  The Senate version of the bill, however, does not contain a similar proposal (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, June 5).

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North Korea:  U.S. Lawmakers Say Pyongyang Is “Ready to Deal”

Several U.S. lawmakers who recently traveled to Pyongyang said North Korea is “ready to deal” with the United States to resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, June 3).

Six U.S. representatives, led by Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), visited North Korea and presented Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun with a plan to defuse the crisis.

“His response was, ‘It’s very positive.  It’s exactly what we are looking for,’” said Weldon.

He also said that the delegation “had some ideas that might help our negotiators,” noting that he would discuss those with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The delegation was confident the North Koreans were ready to sit down at the negotiating table.

“They are certainly ready to deal,” said Representative Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 4).

The mission was difficult because the delegation wanted to hold meaningful discussions without undermining the hardline stance of U.S. President George W. Bush, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“Everything is on the table,” Weldon said.  “They are concerned that America may not be willing to negotiate with them, that we do not want to recognize their legitimacy,” he added.

Some experts said North Korea might misunderstand the visit, the Inquirer reported.  North Korea has insisted on direct talks to resolve the situation and officials in Pyongyang might have interpreted this visit as one-on-one negotiations.  Bush has insisted on a multilateral format to resolve the crisis.

“These states can be so paranoid and their windows so narrow that they can easily misconstrue,” said Tom Henricksen, a foreign policy expert at Stanford University (Chris Mondics, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 4).

Troops Set to Move

Meanwhile, the United States intends to relocate 6,000 of its 7,000 Seoul-based military personnel, the Korea Herald reported today.

The personnel will be moved south of the capital, according to the commander of U.S. forces in Korea, Gen. Leon LaPorte (Kim Hyung-jin, Korea Herald, June 4).

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Iran:  Putin’s Promise Could Slow Iranian Nuclear Ambitions

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent promise to prevent the transfer of nuclear material to Iran until Tehran agrees to tougher nuclear inspections met with approval from some nonproliferation experts, USA Today reported today (see GSN, June 3).

“It’s a move in the right direction,” said Michael Eisenstadt, a Middle East expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.  “It will slow down this particular route” to acquiring nuclear weapons, he added.

Putin reportedly made the promise to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last month and repeated it when he met with U.S. President George W. Bush this week during the Group of Eight summit in Evian, France (Barbara Slavin, USA Today, June 4).

Bushehr Delayed

The Bushehr nuclear reactor, which Russia is helping to build in southern Iran, is behind schedule, Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said yesterday.  The reactor will be finished in 2005, a year later than expected, he said (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 3).

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India:  Russia to Curtail Nuclear Aid to India, Report Says

Moscow officials have told India that Russia will reduce its support for Indian nuclear and space programs, Pakistani newspaper The News reported Monday (see GSN, Feb. 14).

The move came after pressure from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which seeks to stem the proliferation of nuclear technology and material, The News reported (see GSN, May 28).  India is urging Russia to continue its technology transfers, according to a diplomatic source.

“The Indians still hope to get the smuggling of the prohibited material to continue as the issue would be raised by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with Russian President [Vladimir] Putin during his stay in St. Petersburg,” the diplomatic source said (Islamabad The News, June 2 in FBIS-NES, June 2).

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United States:  Congressman Wants More B-2 Bombers

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee last week said the United States needs to invest in slimmed-down versions of the B-2 stealth bomber (see GSN, Jan. 2, 2002).

Claiming the nation’s bomber force is too small, Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said the production of additional B-2s should be considered until a next-generation bomber is developed.  One possibility, he said, was to create a “B-2 ‘Chevy’” — a bomber that would be cheaper to produce because it would not be outfitted for use in a nuclear war environment.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently approved spending $314 million on the B-2 fleet next year in its version of the 2004 defense authorization bill, $85 million more than the Bush administration had requested (see GSN, May 23).

Hunter also said the B-2 should be outfitted with precision-guided weapons.  One project under way is the development of a small-diameter bomb that would be as effective as the larger, 1,000-pound bombs the B-2 now carries, the Daily News reported.  Under that plan, the B-2 would go from carrying 16 1,000-pound bombs to carrying as many as 80 500-pound bombs, each capable of hitting separate targets (Jim Skeen, Los Angeles Daily News, June 2).

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