2007-08: Israel Looks to Replenish Bomb Stocks (tags)
On Aug 3/07, the US DSCA formally announced Israel's request for various US bombs and precision guidance kits. Requested items include 10,000 live MK-84 2,000-lb. bombs; 1,500 live MK-82 500-lb. bombs; 2,000 live BLU-109 2,000-lb. bombs with penetrator warheads; JDAM tail kits that add GPS/INS guidance to bombs (10,000); Paveway II laser-guidance kits for the 500-lb. MK-82 (2,500), the 1,000-lb. MK-83 (500), and the 2,000 pound MK-84 (1,000) bombs; 10,000 FMU-139 live fuze components; 10,000 FMU-152 live fuze components; and 50 GBU-28 Enhanced Paveway III 5,000-lb. 'bunker buster' laser/GPS guided live bombs. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $465 million.
UC Hunger Strike Against Weapons Labs Passes 1-Week Mark (tags)
A hunger strike initiated by 44 UC students, several alumni and a professor has passed its 1-week mark. The hunger strikers are demanding that the UC Board of Regents withdraw from their contracts to operate Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories based on, “the grounds that the Reliable Replacement Warhead program and Los Alamos Labs’ ongoing preparations to conduct plutonium pit manufacturing both clearly violate Article VI of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.” The hunger strikers have put their bodies on the line in a time of enormous flux for US nuclear weapons policy. Their target, the UC, has been identified by them as a site of strategic importance in the wider campaign against new nuclear weapons.