“Bank-Shot” Arms Control Initiatives

(Washington, D.C.): Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., director of the Center for Security Policy, today provided testimony to the House Armed Services Committee in connection with congressional consideration of arms control initiatives aimed at limiting various aspects of nuclear arms and the infrastructure that supports them. Calling these oblique means of constraining such forces "bank-shot" arms control measures, Gaffney advised the Committee that such initiatives "are ill-advised, disingenuous and potentially dangerous for U.S. national security."

Gaffney testified in opposition to pending legislation designed to prohibit U.S. production of plutonium and enriched uranium for weapons purposes. He argued that "as long as we must rely upon nuclear weapons, it is imprudent and irresponsible to undermine the various component parts of the infrastructure that permit such weapons to be effective, reliable and safe. I put in this category efforts further to constrain nuclear testing, to prevent the long-overdue construction of new facilities for manufacture of nuclear components and materials and to prohibit those already built from operating as needed. Were they to become law, the outcome is unquestioned: eventually — if not in very short order — the United States would be unable to field credible nuclear deterrent forces."

The full text of Gaffney’s testimony is attached.