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The Georgia native assumes command of Sub Group 10 at Kings Bay, and already commands Sub Group 9 in Bangor, Wash.
By Terry Dickson, The Times-Union, 20 January 2006
Without a next-generation submarine on the drawing boards, Electric Boat faces the prospect of cutting its work force in half
By Stephen Singer, Associated Press (Providence Journal), 20 Jan 06
Winter sees value in proximity of EB and sub base
By Anthony Cronin, New London Day, 20 Jan 06
By Douglas P. Guarino, Foster’s Daily Democrat, 19 Jan 06
By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, January 20, 2006
Kate
Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot, 20 JAN 06
By Kat Bergeron, Sun Herald, 19 Jan 06
By Team Submarine Undersea Weapons Program Office, NAVSEA Newswire, 19 Jan 06
This was the first time that a French president has publicly spelled out the possibility of nuclear retaliation for state-backed terrorism
By Ariane Bernard & The New York Times News Service, New London Day, 20 Jan 06
Defense News, 19 Jan 06
Admiral
takes big helm
The Georgia native assumes command of Sub Group 10 at Kings Bay, and already commands Sub Group 9 in Bangor, Wash.
By Terry Dickson, The Times-Union, 20 January 2006
ST. MARYS -- A native Georgian took the helm of a bi-coastal command Thursday, over Submarine Group 10 at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and Submarine Group 9 in Bangor, Wash.
Rear Adm. Frank Drennan, who grew up in Elberton, doubled his duties as he relieved Rear Adm. Mark Kenny during a change-of-command ceremony. Kenny will remain commanding officer of Submarine Group 2 in Groton, Conn., and serve as commander of the Northeast region and as commander of the Navy's submarine counterterrorism operations. Drennan already is commander of Group 9.
In his remarks, Kenny poked fun at the fact that Drennan comes from Elberton, a Northeast Georgia city that proclaims itself the granite capital of the world, a claim also made by Barre, Vt.
"So those of you looking to resurface your counter tops ... '' Kenny said.
He called Drennan "the right man, in the right time, in the right position.''
He also praised Vice Adm. Charles Munns for making the decision to align the missions of Bangor and Kings Bay under the same commander.
The change was made to place all the Ohio-class submarines under a unified flag, and to provide greater efficiencies for the Trident force and the Navy, Lt. Cmdr. Monica Richardson, a spokeswoman for Submarine Group 10, has said.
Commands typically last two years, but Kenny's at Kings Bay ended a year early as a result of the realignment.
"It's a ceremony I didn't expect to do so soon,'' he said.
Reuniting Drennan and his wife, Anne, with the area accomplishes another mission, Kenny said.
"It's about time the Navy stopped detailing Yankees down here and got a Southern gentleman and a Southern belle,'' Kenny said.
Both Kenny and Drennan praised the sailors, officers and civilians at Kings Bay for performing their missions so well.
The command is Drennan's second tour at Kings Bay. He was stationed there 25 years ago as a lieutenant long before any of the facilities -- including the chapel where the ceremony was held -- were built.
The Drennans were married when he was stationed there, moved into an apartment off Georgia 40 and later bought their first house off Point Peter Road, Frank Drennan said.
He and his wife drove around the area two nights earlier, seeing how things had changed as they reminisced.
Before the ceremony, Drennan told the Times-Union it will be challenging to command submarine groups 2,400 miles and three time zones apart.
"To the degree I'm physically able and that time allows, I'll spend a good bit of my time here,'' he said.
One duty will be to make sure that the commands separated physically by a continent share practices that work in order to improve the efficiencies of both, Drennan said.
"It's a vision of taking two powerful commands and making them more powerful,'' he said.
Bangor will be the home port in February of the USS Ohio, the first of four Ohio-class submarines converted from nuclear to conventional weapons. Instead of its former load of 24 Trident D-5 intercontinental ballistic missiles, the USS Ohio will carry 154 conventional Tomahawk cruise missiles and now has the ability to deploy Navy SEAL teams. The Ohio is part of Submarine Group 9, while the USS Florida, the second of four such converted submarines, will arrive at Kings Bay in early summer.
There are rogue states, including North Korea and Iran, that seem bent on state-sponsored terrorism, Kenny said.
"We have an answer for them,'' in the most deadly and accurate weapons system the world has ever seen, he said.
Of the four refitted submarines, Kenny said they are made for the war on terrorism.
"They will be fully engaged in this conflict,'' he said.
Without a next-generation submarine on the drawing boards, Electric Boat faces the prospect of cutting its work force in half
By Stephen Singer, Associated Press (Providence Journal), 20 Jan 06
GROTON, Conn. -- The president of Electric Boat shipyard made a pitch to U.S. Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter yesterday to send more submarine work to Groton.
Winter, who was sworn into office earlier this month, visited Electric Boat as part of a tour of New England Navy bases and industrial facilities.
EB president John Casey, speaking with Winter at a news conference, urged construction of two submarines a year "for our company and, more importantly, for our country."
Casey and other submarine advocates have in the past pressed the Navy to boost production from one to two boats a year.
The call took on more urgency after Electric Boat last month announced 2,400 planned job cuts in Groton and Quonset Point in response to a Navy decision to move most of its sub maintenance work from EB to Maine's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Winter would not comment on any spending plans by the Bush administration.
"It's premature of me to make any announcements before the budget rollout," he said.
Winter also visited the submarine base in Groton and Electric Boat's facility at Quonset Point. He was scheduled to travel to Maine today to tour shipyards in Bath and Kittery, the Brunswick Air Station and the Portsmouth facility.
"It's great to get out of Washington," Winter said. "I've been in office a little more than two weeks and I'm getting to understand everything in the Navy."
Casey said EB is working with the Navy to cut costs to make more money available for submarine construction. In addition, design costs have been halved since the 1990s, he said.
Projections show the nation's submarine fleet dwindling from the mid-50s to as low as the 30s if building trends don't change. That would mean more bad news for Electric Boat, a division of General Dynamics Corp. that employs 11,800 people.
The company has contracts to build nine submarines by 2014, but projects a possible work force of about 6,000 employees if new business doesn't arrive. Unlike past contracting slumps, there is no next-generation submarine being designed to offer hope of a future boom.
U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., met briefly yesterday with Winter. He said the Navy secretary would not be pinned down on the course of submarine construction.
"He was noncommittal, but he understands the industrial base and what it takes to design and build complicated machines," Simmons said.
Simmons and Casey said that for the first time in 50 years, the United States does not have a new submarine design on the drawing boards.
"That's a huge potential problem for America," Simmons said.
EB has been awarded an $85-million contract for work next year on the submarine Texas, which officials say will ease future job cuts.
Winter sees value in proximity of EB and sub base
By Anthony Cronin, New London Day, 20 Jan 06
Groton -- Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter made his first tour of southeastern Connecticut's defense industry Thursday, saying he was impressed with the synergy between the Electric Boat shipyard and the Naval Submarine Base.
Winter, who was sworn in to office Jan. 3 as this nation's 74th Navy secretary, said he got to see the “value in the proximity” of one of the nation's two submarine builders to the nation's first submarine base. The two installations are located within a few miles of each other on the Thames River.
That closeness and synergy were touted during this summer's months-long battle to reverse a Pentagon recommendation that the submarine base be closed.
Winter met briefly Thursday morning with U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, and toured the Groton base. Later, he visited EB, where he met with shipyard President John P. Casey and toured the USS Hawaii, the third of the Virginia-class submarines, which is under construction.
Casey called on Winter to send more submarine work to Groton, urging construction of two submarines a year “for our company and more importantly for our country.”
EB announced last month that it planned to cut 2,400 jobs in Groton and Quonset Point, R.I., in response to a Navy decision to move most of its submarine maintenance work from EB to Maine's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Winter declined to comment on Navy shipbuilding plans. He later visited the Quonset Point shipyard and is traveling today to the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.
Winter said he was concerned about maintaining this nation's institutional knowledge about shipbuilding, including submarines and surface ships. “That is an area that concerns me,” he said.
EB currently builds the equivalent of a half-submarine a year as part of a teaming arrangement with Northrop Grumman Newport News in Virginia. The Navy's current budget plans call for a buildup to the equivalent of two submarines a year in fiscal 2012. But the state's congressional delegation, including Simmons, is pushing hard for a speedier buildup.
Simmons is calling for seed money in fiscal year 2007, with the actual funding for two subs a year occurring in fiscal 2009, rather than 2012. The federal government's fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30.
Winter said he agreed to meet soon with Simmons in Washington, D.C., on the congressman's eight-point plan to build up submarine construction and repair-related work for the Groton shipbuilder.
“I had a great conversation with Congressman Simmons and, after I complete my initial assessment, I'll give him my feelings on the overall situation (of submarine building),” Winter said.
Before his appointment to the Navy's top civilian post, Winter served as president of Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems Sector. In his new role as secretary of the Navy and the Marine Corps, he is responsible for a budget of $125 billion and almost 900,000 Navy and Marine personnel.
Simmons said he told Winter that he should split existing and future submarine maintenance and repair work between private yards such as EB and Navy-owned yards such as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. EB officials said in December that Navy brass told them that future repair work -- after two upcoming jobs for the USS Toledo and USS Miami -- would be awarded only to Navy-owned yards. EB is planning to bid on both the Toledo and Miami work.
Simmons also told Winter that EB should assume work on the troubled Advanced SEAL Delivery System mini-sub program, now held by a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, and that EB should be allowed to build eight new diesel submarines for Taiwan.
U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., applauded Winter's visit to the Groton shipyard so early in his new term. “I commend the secretary of the Navy for coming to southeastern Connecticut to see how both (the Groton base and Groton shipyard) act in concert to fulfill our nation's submarine needs,” he said in a statement.
Dodd said he would continue to push for increased submarine production.
“We simply can't afford to continue to allow our submarine industrial base, which are the skilled workers at Electric Boat, to be lost,” he said.
By Douglas P. Guarino, Foster’s Daily Democrat, 19 Jan 06
PORTSMOUTH - The Navy's top official will visit the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Friday, just two weeks after being sworn into office.
Donald C. Winter, who assumed the position of Secretary of the Navy Jan. 3, will visit the yard as part of a familiarization tour of the Northeast shipbuilding and Navy facilities, according to a press release shipyard Public Affairs Officer Deborah White issued this morning.
The country's 74th Navy Secretary, Winter replaced Gordon England, who President Bush recently appointed to succeed Paul Wolfowitz as Deputy Defense Secretary.
In his new role, Winter is head of the Navy and Marine Corps and responsible for its $125 billion annual budget and nearly 900,000 personnel.
As Navy secretary, Winter is responsible for all Navy department affairs, including recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training, mobilizing and demobilizing. He also oversees the construction, outfitting and repair of naval ships, equipment and facilities.
Winter's office is also responsible for formulating and implementing "naval policies and programs that are consistent with the national security polices and objectives established by the President and the Secretary of Defense."
Like England, Winter's background is with private defense contractors.
Prior to joining the Bush administration, Winter served as a corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman's mission system's sector. Winter oversaw 18,000 employees.
Winter will host a brief news conference Friday evening following his tour of the yard.
By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, January 20, 2006
Documents released under a court order show that a government investigator studying the stranding of 37 whales on the North Carolina coast last year changed her draft report to eliminate all references to the possibility that naval sonar may have played a role in driving the whales ashore.
The issue of sonar's effects on whales is a sensitive topic for the U.S. Navy. It has clashed with environmentalists in several court suits seeking to limit use of the technology because of its possible effects on marine mammals and other sea creatures.
The January 2005 stranding occurred shortly after naval maneuvers in the area -- which is off North Carolina and in the region where the Pentagon wants to build a controversial underwater sonar training range.
In her initial April 2005 preliminary report on the deaths, Teri Rowles, coordinator of the National Marine Fisheries Service's stranding response program, described injuries to seven of the whales that "may be indicative" of damage related to the loud blasts of sound from active sonar.
She also noted that one of the injuries -- air bubbles in the liver of a pilot whale -- had been reported in mass strandings in the Bahamas and Canary Islands associated with sonar activity.
That report was made public this week after a federal judge in New York ordered its release to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental group, which had sued the agency over its refusal to release information on the whales' stranding on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
But before it was released by NRDC, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an updated report -- by Rowles and others -- that did not mention sonar. In a cover letter to that report, NOAA officials said the initial draft that mentioned sonar "contains early information that was later found to be inaccurate."
NRDC attorney Andrew Wetzler said that the second report "seems a lot more like spin than science." He said the absence of any reference to sonar was surprising because the evidence suggesting that sonar might have played a role hardly changed between the first and second drafts. What changed, he said, was some limited analysis by Rowles.
In an interview yesterday, Rowles said the references to sonar were removed because it was just one of several possible causes of the strandings. "Sonar has not been implicated or eliminated -- it remains one of many possible causes," she said. "We wanted to put out a report that included our most up-to-date information."
Most important, she said, was the conclusion after further analysis that the presence of air bubbles in one animal's liver had not been conclusively confirmed. Air bubbles were found in the organs of several whales that stranded in the Canary Islands after a sonar exercise, leading some researchers to conclude that the animals swam to the surface too rapidly and suffered a version of the bends. If air bubbles were present in the whales that beached in North Carolina, it could suggest that sonar caused their stranding, as well.
The federal court order to release the report came at an awkward time for NOAA and the Navy, which has been holding public hearings on its controversial plan to build an underwater sonar training range.
The public record on that issue will close at the end of the month, and some activists have complained that officials are trying to withhold information about the stranding until after that time. In its court filings, NRDC argued that it was unfair to complete the hearings before information about the strandings was released.
Navy officials say that the sonar training range is essential, and that active sonar is increasingly important because of a growing threat from diesel submarines that cannot be detected using traditional passive sonar.
The Navy has also acknowledged that sonar can harm whales. A Navy-NOAA investigation found that sonar from Navy ships was the most plausible explanation for the stranding of 17 whales in the Bahamas in 2000. The report found that sonar-induced damage to the ears of some animals may have disoriented them and caused them to swim onto the shore.
Researchers are also studying the ears of some animals that stranded in North Carolina, but Rowles said those results will not be known for some time. The final report, she said, is scheduled to be released in March.
Kate
Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot, 20 JAN 06
NORFOLK — Read two preliminary reports about more than 30 whales that stranded on the Outer Banks last January , and you might draw two very different conclusions.
The first, a one-page document, released Tuesday on order from a federal judge, mentions “sonar” four times. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration report is dated April 2005 .
An updated version, released by NOAA this month, mentions sonar only once – specifying that certain injuries are not a feature of sonar or acoustic trauma.
Why the change? It depends on whom you ask in this contentious, high-stakes issue.
Daniel Parry , a spokesman for NOAA’s Fisheries division, says the first draft “prematurely” cited sonar as a possible cause of the mass stranding on Jan. 14 and 15, 2005 .
The National Resources Defense Council , which sued NOAA for a copy of the April document, contends that the agency’s changes smack of public relations, not research.
A spokesman for the Navy acknowledges the investigation isn’t finished but described the development as “positive.” Its plans for a shallow water sonar training range off North Carolina’s coast could hang in the balance.
Meanwhile, a marine mammal physiologist says scientists may never know why the whales beached themselves.
A few facts aren’t in dispute.
Thirty-four whales – pilot, minke and pygmy sperm species – died on Corolla and Cape Hatteras beaches.
Active sonar, which has been shown to cause acoustic trauma in marine mammals, was immediately suspected as a cause.
The Navy has said that no sonar was in use within 50 nautical miles of the Outer Banks’ Oregon Inlet between Jan. 11 and 15.
Lt. William Marks , a Washington-based spokesman, said only one Navy ship activated its sonar within 100 miles of the inlet during that period.
That vessel was 95 nautical miles away on Jan. 14 , and used its sonar system for seven minutes, Marks said.
Both reports conclude that the majority of the whales didn’t shows signs of infections or blunt trauma.
The earlier report suggests that acute lesions in the liver of one pilot whale “may be indicative of anthropogenic sources (e.g. sonar).” It says five other whales experienced various types of hemorrhage.
The second report drops the reference to liver lesions .
Dr. Teri Rowles , a NOAA veterinarian , compiled both reports using data from fellow investigators. She explained that the April report was reviewed by one pathologist, while the later version included results from 19 internal and external laboratories reviewed by six pathologists, half of them from outside the United States.
Rowles, coordinator of NOAA’s marine mammal health and stranding response program , emphasized that dropping the sonar references might be temporary.
“We haven’t ruled in or ruled out any factor,” she said. “It’s too early still, without having all the data in front of us, to say one way or another.”
Andrew Wetzler said the timing of the second report seems too much of a coincidence.
“First the government linked sonar to the stranding and now they don’t,” said Wetzler, a lawyer with the National Resources Defense Council. “It seems more like spin than science. Almost all facts are the same, but all references to sonar have been systematically excised.”
Wetzler said the incident bore all the marks of sonar-induced strandings: The whales came ashore in numbers, coincident with naval activity, involving multiple species and individuals that appeared to be healthy.
Wetzler didn’t say that Navy sonar was a definite cause. He just doesn’t want it to be prematurely ruled out – especially as the Navy plans a sonar training range that could see use up to 168 days a year.
Heather Koopman, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, works within miles of the site the Navy would like to use to practice hunting “enemy” submarines.
“Animals have been mass stranding along all coasts for eternity,” said Koopman, a marine mammal physiologist. “In most of those cases, we don’t know what the cause of that is.”
If sonar did alter the whales’ behavior, Koopman said, it might not be clear how. Acoustic trauma can disturb feeding or mating patterns or force them to dive deeper than usual.
“I’m not trying to defend anyone, but we don’t know what causes these things,” Koopman said.
NOAA’s Rowles hopes that months of additional research will bring clarity to everyone curious about the January strandings.
The explanation could be as simple as whales having followed prey close to shore, then getting trapped at low tide. It might be influenced by weather, biotoxins in their food or sonar, or some combination of them all.
Rowles hopes to have a full report finished in March.
While the Navy presses ahead with its plan for the sonar training range, Marks said the service would take NOAA’s findings into account.
If the agency presents “significant findings that conclusively link the Navy to the strandings,” Marks said, the Navy would reconsider opening the public comment period on the training range.
For now, comments on the Navy’s draft environmental impact statement on the range must be received by Jan. 30.
By Kat Bergeron, Sun Herald, 19 Jan 06
Fifty-two World War II submarines sank and each state was assigned one in hopes the citizens would memorialize those who enlisted for a military service with such high death rates.
Mississippi was assigned the USS Tullibee, sunk March 1944 in the Pacific when a torpedo fired by her own crew did a circular run. Only one of the 80-man crew survived.
Years passed and Mississippi didn't dedicate a monument, even though Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula built 13 subs. The memorial became reality when the "younger" veterans of Tullibee Base Mississippi (state chapter of the U.S. Submarine Veterans) worked with the few remaining Mississippi WWII sub vets.
In August 2003 the lone and aging Tullibee survivor was in Ocean Springs for dedication of the Mississippi Submarine Memorial.
"What sets this apart is its dedication to all who served on submarines," said Al Hammond of Gautier. "Anyone who has followed submarines knows that the Cold War deterrent was 41 fleet ballistic missile submarines, called the Forty-One for Freedom.
Hammond, who served on one of them, was fighting cancer when he spearheaded the design of the new memorial, three granite stones engraved with the names of the Tullibee crew, and all subs lost in U.S. history.
The memorial stood about 300 feet south of the Mississippi Vietnam War Veterans' Memorial on U.S. 90. That monument survived Katrina, but the submariners' memorial was shattered.
"The angle of the granite created too much of a 'sail' area and caught the wind," said Hammond, who had been declared cancer-free just days before the hurricane.
"We've already raised about half of the $9,000 we need. As before, most comes from submariners from all over the country."
Hammond went into redesign mode but had to take a break for heart surgery. The submarine memorial group - which has a Web site, www.datasync.com/~edabear/Welcome.html - is amazed by his tenacity.
"Al is remarkable," said Herb Edmonds, a Tullibee Base officer. "As soon as he saw the memorial in pieces, he talked about rebuilding."
By Team Submarine Undersea Weapons Program Office, NAVSEA Newswire, 19 Jan 06
WASHINGTON - Off the coast of Western Australia in early December 2005, the Navy's Los Angeles Class submarine USS Columbia (SSN 771) successfully test fired 17 of the newly developed Mk 48 Mod 7 Heavyweight Torpedoes as part of the weapon’s operational testing against the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN) Collins Class submarine HMAS Dechaineux (SSK 76) in joint exercises.
This torpedo is a product of a joint development project between Australia and the United States, and will be the primary weapon in Navy submarines, and the RAN’s Collins Class submarines.
“The new weapon, together with the new combat system, will significantly enhance the operational capability of the Collins Class submarine, ” said RAN director general submarines, Commodore Boyd Robinson.
“The joint development of the MK 48 Mod 7 torpedo is a watershed in the cooperation between the United States and one of its most trusted allies,” said program executive officer, submarines Rear Adm. William Hilarides.
To fully test the enhanced anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare capability of the new weapon, RAN world-class diesel submarines in Western Australian shallow waters were used to provide a challenging environment.
The joint operational test activity marks an additional milestone in the development of the torpedo, and demonstrates the extent to which both navies utilize each others’ capabilities and assets to develop and test a state of the art weapon. From weapons assembly, to firing, to data analysis, the Navy and RAN joint team performed the international testing in lockstep.
The traditional logistical obstacles were overcome as the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Keyport Division, Keyport, Wash., shipped torpedoes and torpedo components to the RAN companion facility at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia for assembly, preparation and testing prior to being loaded onboard Columbia.
Once firings were completed, RAN and NUWC Keyport facilities performed analysis of the data produced. These firings were the second of a three-part series. An earlier sequence of developmental tests occurred in the same operational area during September 2005. The remaining test firings will be completed in US waters, with a full rate production decision expected in June of this year, followed by the Initial Operational Capability (IOC) decision that will introduce the weapon into service.
This was the first time that a French president has publicly spelled out the possibility of nuclear retaliation for state-backed terrorism
By Ariane Bernard & The New York Times News Service, New London Day, 20 Jan 06
Paris - President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that he would consider a nuclear response to a large, state-backed terrorist strike against France.
“The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part,” Chirac said in a speech at a nuclear submarine base in Brittany.
He named no countries.
“This response could be a conventional one,” he said. “It could also be of a different kind.”
Elysee Palace said that Chirac's speech reflected changes adopted as part of a routine review of nuclear doctrine, which is done every five years.
But this was the first time that a French president has publicly spelled out the possibility of nuclear retaliation for state-backed terrorism. In the past, France has said that nuclear weapons could be used if its “vital interests” were at risk, while deliberately refraining from identifying those interests.
“In French doctrine, nuclear weapons are meant to deter attacks against ‘vital interests,' to create uncertainty among potential attackers about what these interests could be,” said Francois Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. “But here, things get defined. That's a change.”
Even though the speech did not name any countries, it was delivered amid heightened concern about Iran, which the State Department frequently calls “the most active state sponsor of terrorism.”
Iran recently resumed nuclear activities, breaking off a November 2004 agreement suspending most of its nuclear program. Iran maintains that it wants to develop a civilian nuclear program and has no intention of building nuclear weapons.
Chirac couched his directive within other long-standing precedents, saying that France does not plan to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict and that its “nuclear deterrence is not intended to deter fanatical terrorists” who operate around the world, independent of established governments.
France's Communist opposition and disarmament groups sharply criticized Chirac's comments, calling them irresponsible, Reuters reported.
“Far from ridding France of nuclear weapons, the president is, on the contrary, considering the actual use of nuclear bombs,” the Sortir du Nucleaire, an anti-nuclear group, said.
A Communist deputy, Jacques Brunhes, said that Chirac's position could, perversely, lead non-nuclear nations to seek nuclear arms. “It can only encourage states which have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty to opt for military uses of nuclear technology.”
Specialists say they believe the French arsenal comprises about 300 warheads.
Since the Cold War, critics have questioned the need for France to maintain a nuclear deterrent, which absorbs about 10 percent of the military budget.
Chirac's government is under pressure to cut spending as it struggles to bring its budget deficit below the European Union's limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product. But in his speech, Chirac said, “Our country's security and its independence have their price.”
Defense News, 19 Jan 06
Taiwan’s defense ministry on Jan. 19 released satellite photos of Chinese military bases in a rare move aimed at winning support for a huge arms purchase plan repeatedly blocked by parliament.
”Posing the biggest threats to Taiwan are the ballistic missiles deployed in Leping, Yongan and Ganzhou in Jiangxi province,” an unidentified army officer told reporters as he showed satellite photos.
The Pentagon last year warned that China had deployed up to 730 ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan.
Another Taiwanese military officer said China’s People Liberation Army has deployed fighters and bomber fleets at four air bases in Fujian province facing Taiwan.
”Russian-made Su-27 fighter jets were found for the first time in July last year at Liancheng (in Fujian),” the officer said.
”The photo clearly shows the Su-27s were armed with missiles. They can fly to Taiwan’s airspace in seven minutes.”
China in 1996 launched ballistic missiles into waters off Taiwan’s two major ports to try to intimidate voters not to vote for President Lee Teng-hui, who was seeking re-election.
The tactic backfired and Lee won another term.
Even though the two sides have been governed separately since 1949, China sees Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification -- by force if necessary.
”We are racing against time. If we don’t do it (arms purchase) today, we’ll regret it tomorrow,” Defense Minister Lee Jye told a press conference.
He said Taiwan badly needs the $10 billion package of defensive weaponry from the United States to deter an attack.
Lawmakers from two main opposition parties have repeatedly blocked the package even though the total cost has been scaled back from $19 billion.
The opposition insists the arms bill is illegal after Taiwanese voted against expanded arms purchases in the island’s first referendum held simultaneously with presidential polls in March 2004.
The latest version of the arms bill calls for the purchase of eight conventional submarines and 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft from the United States over a 15-year period for around 340 billion Taiwan dollars ($10 billion).
The six PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile systems included in the original bill would be financed by the government’s yearly budgets.
Some opposition lawmakers said Taiwan could not afford the arms deal. Others said the equipment would be delivered too slowly to enable the island to catch up with China’s military build-up.