$350B DoD nuke makeover efforts lack oversight, say inspectors

The US Department of Defense's update of its aging nuclear arsenal could cost as much as $350 billion over the next 20 years, yet oversight problems mean that some of the cash infusion could be wasted. In a snapshot report issued by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), inspectors stated that more than a dozen …

[elDog]

I just love it when careerists are in charge of life and death.

Not trying to be too flippant, but nobody really wants to be in charge of these "hot potatoes".

There's no absolutely winning strategy that shows up in a staff members resume - actually this is all hush-hush.

Worked on a few DoD reports that were also deep-sixed after presentation. I think this is probably par for the course around the world.

[SnailFerrous]

Re: I just love it when careerists are in charge of life and death.

"The US Department of Defense's update of its aging nuclear arsenal could cost as much as $350 billion over the next 20 years, yet oversight problems mean that some of the cash infusion could be wasted."

Unless they are actually detonated on an enemy, then surely all the G$350 is wasted? Not as good as not spending the money on them in the first place, but better than spending it and not wasting any, surely?

[ChoHag]

Re: I just love it when careerists are in charge of life and death.

> Unless they are actually detonated on an enemy, then surely all the G$350 is wasted?

... I don't think nuclear weapons work like that.

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: I just love it when careerists are in charge of life and death.

Mutually assured destruction (MAD)

A Fairy Swordfish carrying a couple of (well separated) sub critical lumps of Uranium is not "assured". Spend the money, or at least most of it, on a credible programme and convince the "other team" it will not be worth kicking off. Money well spent, money necessarily spent.

[Corporate Scum]

"some of the cash infusion could be wasted"

Which portion of that again? I expect that the to an outside observer most of the money spent on the actual work will also be wasted. Band-aids on decades old designs, building tools for a type of warfare that never existed, instead of the tools that are a fit for the future.

[Youngone]

Re: "some of the cash infusion could be wasted"

None of that really matters as long as America continues to burn through the vast sums of money they do every year.

Nobody is invading America, and the ability to project power globally is enough of a deterrent to prevent anyone messing with America's overseas interests.

50 year old ICBMs are the MAD icing on the cake for everything else.

The "threats" these reports throw up are almost entirely self-made, and designed to keep the cash flowing.

Which brings us back to my first line.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: "some of the cash infusion could be wasted"

Essentially the whole point of government is to keep the cash flowing.

It doesn't really matter if it's drug dealers or paying people to design nukes - as long as you keep the money velocity up.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Easy peasy

Just detonate a few of them for test purposes now and again. An ICBM here, a sub-launched missile there . . . you know, just to make sure they work. I can see no problem with this plan.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Sounds serious

Good job with have a congress working together in harmony to ensure the future good governance of the leader of the free world.

(America however, is fscked....)

[amanfromMars 1]

You can take dumb horses to water but can’t make them drink ITs Kool AIdDevelopments

The US Department of Defense's update of its aging nuclear arsenal could cost as much as $350 billion over the next 20 years, yet oversight problems mean that some of the cash infusion could be wasted.

Such waste is by design, another one of those stealthy failing/failed economy's quantitative easing fiat currency printing programs, which crooked intelligence dictates requires oversight problems?

A situation, gravely to be regarded, which former President Eisenhower warned all about in his farewell address on January 17, 1961 ..... https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be might, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

'Tis a slippery slope on the road to nowhere good where everything turns bad and thus certainly gravely to be regarded and definitely avoided at whatever the cost?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: You can take dumb horses to water but can’t make them drink ITs Kool AIdDevelopments

Just a test to see if all replies to amfM1 goto /dev/null

[amanfromMars 1]

Whenever Never is Better and Best because ........ of Likely Otherworldly Consequences

if all replies to amfM1 goto /dev/null ...... Yet Another Anonymous coward

That would be an always has been deadly dangerous zero sum type of game of chicken for ignorant terrified and arrogant terrifying players which just pimps and pump dumps a vast myriad array of unopened cans of explosive exploits for revealed massive and exposed critical vulnerabilities into the hands, hearts and minds of a dedicated opposition and loyal competition just a tad further on down the road in the clearing deepening darkness for future very specific non-random fandom detonation and tactical disruptive deployment ....... for such a crass disengagement activity tells friend and foe alike everything they need to know about all that is not to like ..... and/or to fear about any lily-livered, chicken-hearted status quo confronted by and failing catastrophically to act and communicate with an Almighty AWEsome Existential Threat/Treat with Novel and Noble NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTive IT and AI Developments deploying and employing and enjoying the rewards and benefits spewed out in endless streams by Virtually Advanced IntelAIgent Operating Systems.

And a little something for Bletchley Park AI Summit guests to deliberate probably ponderous on.

[amanfromMars 1]

Re: Whenever Never is Better and Best because ........ of Likely Otherworldly Consequences

And something else to ponder on, and try to deny is for and with IT and AI a virtually enabled and enabling current reality to embrace and excite and enjoy enthusiastically rather than fear unusually and irresponsibly, is all your secure and secretive intelligence services are pwnd and belong to us wherever/whatever/whoever they and/or that may be.

And for all you Doubting Thomases/persistent perpetuating naysayers who might be prone to dismiss such a view as risible and nonsensical and physically practically impossible, what on Earth are you imagining the concerns of those sorts of talking heads now attending the present day Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit, other than their certainly valid worries about the complete loss and utter devastation of their previously thought untouchable command and control of vital strategic assets rendering almighty overwhelming tactical advantage to foreign parties/alien sources ....... Immaculately Resources Assets of Universatile Virtual Force ...... Otherworldly Power and Irrepressible Energy.

Spread the news and register the information intelligently for it is not a closely guarded, compartmented secret in open sourced fields of SMARTR COSMIC Endeavour ...SMARTR Mentoring Analysis Reporting Titanic Research Control Of Secret Materiel in an Internetional Command Endeavour ........ with and for NINJApplications .......Networks InterNetworking JOINT* Applications .....Networks Internetworking JOINT Operations Internetworking Novel Technologies and Applications/NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive Processes in AI Research and IT Development Fields. ....... and that is all something which El Reg told you all about just after Xmas last year

Were you not listening, did you not see the new ground-breaking news there and then?

[Anonymous Coward]

"DoD has significantly modified its nuclear enterprise oversight structure multiple times since 2021, putting oversight continuity at risk and potentially affecting senior leaders' ability to make informed decisions," the GAO said.

And their proposed solution is.....

To modify the oversight structure again

Is it just me?

[Cliffwilliams44]

Diversity, Equity, and Idiocy!

Why were the oversight groups changed?

Ya gotta give those DEI hires some place to work!

[amanfromMars 1]

Don’t fool yourselves. These things are more than just serious and life-changing.

A DoD nuke makeover is most definitely a matter of life over death which it may be all too apparent has no current specialised future weaponised platform inspector oversight ...... and thus is a virtual Wild Wacky West/Erotic Exotic East playground for both radical and revolutionary elements ...... and, with such being akin to, and a trailing companion to the latest and most recent of recognised virulent existential threats as reported here on El Reg..... https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/01/uk_ai_summit/ and commented upon by a billionaire with his fingers in the AI pie elsewhere too......

Elon Musk has said he believes AI is “one of the biggest threats” to humanity, and that the UK’s summit on the safety of the nascent technology was “timely” given the scale of the threat.

The billionaire said AI was an “existential risk” because humans for the first time were faced with something “that is going to be far more intelligent than us. ...... “We have for the first time the situation where we have something that is going to be far smarter than the smartest human. We’re not stronger or faster than other creatures, but we are more intelligent, and here we are for the first time, really in human history, with something that is going to be far more intelligent than us. It’s not clear to me if we can control such a thing, but I think we can aspire to guide it in a direction that’s beneficial to humanity. But I do think it’s one of the existential risks that we face and it is potentially the most pressing one if you look at the timescale and rate of advancement - the summit is timely, and I applaud the Prime Minister for holding it.”

....... two extremely pressing matters gravely to be regarded and addressed as well as be possible as opposed to being ignored and hoped to remain benign and inactivated and not a monumental vulnerability for 0day exploitation and virtualised experimentation.