THE USA IS UPGRADING ITS NUCLEAR ARSENAL?

How the US Learned to Love the Bomb (Again)

How do you feel about a nuclear weapon that could be launched from the back of a jeep?
The slightly bizarre idea of 'user-friendly' nuclear weapons. On the whole score of proliferation we're always hearing plenty about the dangers posed by the Irans and North Koreas of this world but, as we're about to see, while all that has been going on the US itself has been quietly beavering away on a program aimed at completely upgrading its nuclear arsenal, including the development of tactical weapons - mini-nukes that could be used on the battlefield. Thom Cookes reports.

REPORTER: Thom Cookes

AMBASSADOR LINTON BROOKS: I'm going to assume that, for the foreseeable future, that we are going to need to retain nuclear weapons and we're going to need to retain the capability to sustain and, if necessary, modernise them.
REPORTER: Is the US, right now, developing new nuclear weapons?
HANS KRISTENSEN, FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: Right now? It's in the process of developing a replacement for its entire stockpile.
REPORTER: How is that affecting the talk in the Administration about arms control?
DARYL KIMBALL, DIRECTOR, ARMS CONTROL ASSOCIATION: Well, you're assuming that there's talk in the Administration about arms control, which there isn't and frankly, this program is not well known outside the US at this stage. It's not even all that well known within Congress.
At the same time that the US is applying extreme pressure to North Korea and Iran to drop their nuclear programs, it's quietly preparing for a new atomic age.
There's a push to develop new, more user-friendly weapons, such as nuclear bunker-busters, that could completely change the way wars are fought.
GENERAL EUGENE HABIGER: In my view, that is a mistake, because what you are doing, what we are doing is developing a nuclear weapon that becomes more viable to use, more attractive to use, and nuclear weapons are so horrific that it does not make sense to develop a weapon that is more attractive to use.
Throughout the four decades of the Cold War, the US maintained and developed a massive nuclear arsenal designed for just one purpose - the total annihilation of the former Soviet Union.
All the thousands of bombers, ballistic missiles and nuclear submarines were designed to deter the Soviets from even thinking of using their weapons.
DR STRANGELOVE, MOVIE CLIP: Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the fear to attack. ........./read the entire interview!.... /