Arms Control Wonk

By Jeffrey Lewis & Aaron Stein

Technology Education

What's Arms Control Wonk about?

The nuclear weapons, arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation podcast. Companion to the popular Arms Control Wonk blog (www.armscontrolwonk.com)

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A Tale of Two Launches

04.01.2021

North Korea has been active the past few weeks, launching a set of cruise missiles (probably just coastal defense systems) and a separate set of ballistic missiles (which look like stretched KN23 short-range ballistic missiles) a few days later. But ...

Arms Control Wonk episodes:

04.01.2021 A Tale of Two Launches North Korea has been active the past few weeks, launching a set of cruise missiles (probably just coastal defense systems) and a separate set of ballistic missiles (which look like stretched KN23 short-range ballistic missiles) a few days later. But ...
03.11.2021 Making the Easy Stuff Hard: Re-joining the JCPOA Biden campaigned on rejoining the JCPOA, but some of that enthusiasm has dried up since he took office. Aaron and Jeffrey debate what's going on, strategies for negotiating re-joining the JCPOA, and the fallacy of letting the perfect get in ...
02.26.2021 New START and the Future of Arms Control President Biden has extended New START for five more years. But what are we going to do with those years? How to we actually advance stability? Aaron and Jeffrey talk about the steps necessary to secure stable, effective arms control ...
02.18.2021 Iran's New Space Launcher: Zoljanah Iran unveiled a new (mostly) solid-propellant space launcher, the Zoljanah! But it looks....different than the other space launchers. Besides having a new fuel type, the Zoljanah may not have many IRGC or military fingerprints on it, indicating that the Iranian ...
02.05.2021 Unravelling the Israeli Ballistic Missile Program Israel maintains a technologically advanced but understudied ballistic missile arsenal. Jeffrey and Aaron dive into the French, South African, and American influences on the arsenal, how to model the Jericho missile families, and the history of the Israeli ballistic missile ...
01.25.2021 North Korea's Next Nukes North Korea put on another parade, during the 8th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea. Kim Jong Un dropped some fascinating details about what the DPRK has allegedly completed, and what they may be working on, including a possible ...
01.12.2021 Fancy Ass SWERVE On Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time, the U.S. Air Force, in partnership with the Strategic Capabilities Office, conducted a flight test of a prototype conventionally-configured ground-launched ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. But just ...
01.08.2021 The Donald and The Nuclear 7: Parting Shots Nancy Pelosi has indicated that Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has assured her that there are safeguards against an "unstable president" accessing "the launch codes" and launching a nuclear strike. Jeffrey and Aaron discuss why that ...
01.06.2021 North Korea's Biggest ICBM Yet Jeffrey and crew have been busy at work modelling the giant ICBM that the DPRK paraded in October 2020, as well as tracing out its possible industrial provenance. Aaron and Jeffrey talk through modelling methodologies, North Korean industrial espionage, and ...
12.29.2020 New Year, New START, New Facilities in Iran At the end of this awful year, Jeffrey and Aaron talk about the future of arms control, the future of analytics, and the future of the pod. 2021 will have a lot going on: New START expiration or extension, new ...
12.02.2020 Dennis Gormley Jeffrey and Aaron share stories about the life of Dennis Gormley, renowned proliferation scholar and celebrated professor. Dennis's work on cruise missile proliferation, tacit knowledge, and industrial expertise was foundational to the field of proliferation studies, and he was a ...
10.22.2020 The 2020 North Korean Military Parade On 10/10/2020, the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the Worker's Party of Korea, the DPRK showed of a lot of missiles. Again. In addition to all the stuff they've been testing over the last two years, they introduced a ...
10.09.2020 Saving the World with Datayo Melissa Hanham, director of Datayo and Deputy Director of the Open Nuclear Network, joins Jeffrey and Scott to talk about Datayo, a project aimed at reducing nuclear risks and fostering a transparent, collaborative, and high-quality analytic information environment. Scott fawns ...
10.09.2020 The Deal Now that a few episodes have dropped, Anne and Jeffrey talk about Jeffrey's new project, The Deal. Jeffrey chronicles how researchers like Corey Hinderstein chased down data before satellite imagery was so easily available, Wendy Sherman's incredible memory for names, ...
09.29.2020 At The Brink How do we step back from the brink and reduce the very real threat that nuclear weapons continue to pose? Nuclear weapons continue to impact people's lives, even if they are sometimes treated as historical threats of a prior era. ...
09.08.2020 The Deal Episode 1: The Revelation In 2002, Corey Hinderstein, a young research analyst, follows a hunch after a routine press conference in Washington, D.C. The results of her scavenger hunt sparked a diplomatic crisis that stretched more than a decade, lasted through two presidencies, and ...
09.07.2020 The Deal: Promo The Deal: The story of the Iran nuclear deal; how it came together, how it fell apart, and what that means for the rest of us. Hosted by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the ...
08.19.2020 Diamond Tempest in a Teapot In 2018, the US and the UAE conducted a joint military exercise called Diamond Tempest. While looking through still images and videos from the exercise, Jeffrey and his colleagues at CNS thought it would make a great case study. Just ...
08.05.2020 Lessons Learned from the War in Yemen The war in Yemen has seen the highest usage of ballistic missiles since the Iraq War, and the highest usage of ballistic missile defense assets in any conflict, offering a preview of any future conflicts with Iran. Aaron and Scott ...
07.10.2020 The Wollo-Ri Suspected Nuclear Warhead Manufacturing Facility Another day, another suspected nuclear facility in North Korea. Anne and Jeffrey discuss the Wollo-ri Suspected Nuclear Warhead Manufacturing Facility. They discuss how the CNS team has monitored this site since 2015, the satellite imagery analysis that went into it, ...
07.06.2020 Mysterious Explosions in Iran In a cross-over podcast with FPRI’s Middle East Brief, Aaron speaks with Fabian Hinz, a frequent guest on the podcast, about the recent explosions in Iran and what open source intelligence has revealed about the two incidents. You can find ...
05.29.2020 Renewed Nuclear Testing in... the U.S.? John Hudson and Paul Sonne at the Washington Post broke the story that Trump administration officials have discussed conducting additional nuclear tests in the United States. Jeffrey and Anne discuss why this is a bad idea, how this would disproportionately ...
05.27.2020 What's Up with Turkey's S400? Turkey previously announced that its S400 air defense regiment would be activated and in service by the end of April, 2020, after its delivery from Russia in 2019. Since it is now May 2020, with no S400 deployment in sight, ...
05.22.2020 Renewed Nuclear Testing in China? The Wall Street Journal reported that "China might be secretly conducting nuclear tests with very low explosive power" based on the State Department's 2020 Annual Compliance Report, but that is not quite what the report actually says. Jeffrey and Anne ...
05.12.2020 Iran's Satellite and the IRGC Space Program Iran launched a small satellite into orbit. But more importantly, it was Iran's revolutionary guards, not the civilian space program, that did the launching -- and with a new solid rocket motor as the second stage. Fabian Hinz joins Jeffrey ...
05.01.2020 Russia's Nudol Anti-Satellite Missile Test In mid-April, Russia tested a direct ascent anti-satellite missile (DA ASAT), the Nudol/PL19, against a point in space. Anti-satellite weapons are an old favorite of the pod, so Anne, Aaron, and Jeffrey meet to discuss the history of anti-satellite weapons, ...
04.17.2020 The IAEA's questions for Iran The International Atomic Energy Agency has questions about three sites in Iran -- but Iran doesn't feel like answering. Aaron, Anne and Jeffrey discuss the atomic archive, access to suspect facilities, and environmental sampling. Plus, there are a few things ...
04.15.2020 Tracking the PLA Rocket Forces The People's Liberation Army Rocket Forces used to be a nearly opaque organization to all but a few open-source researchers. Now, increased availability of satellite-imagery and public media enable open-source exploitation and tracking of PRC missile forces like never before. ...
04.10.2020 Mort Halperin and the Okinawa Decision Mort Halperin a giant as an academic and a policy practitioner. And he's working on a memoir that covers his sixty year career in foreign policy. Mort played an important role in the US decision to revert Okinawa to Japanese ...
03.26.2020 Biden and the Bomb Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. While the popular perception of Biden is that he's quite moderate, on nuclear issues he's always been relatively progressive. Aaron and Jeffrey discuss Biden and bomb. Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!
03.24.2020 The PLA Rocket Force's Rapid Expansion China's People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) has been very busy in the last few years, testing new high-tech missiles and standing up new launch brigades. Superproducer Scott joins Jeffrey and Anne to talk about reports of the PLARF test ...
02.26.2020 Visualizations and Verification James Palmer of the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment joins the ACW trio to talk about the importance of 3D modelling and data visualization, including recreations of North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site and virtual reality training simulations. Links of Note, ...
02.20.2020 Iran's Space Launchers and Solid Missiles Iran tested a satellite launch vehicle, and it failed. But this isn't a reason to cheer. Iran showed off a lot of goodies this month, pointing to an active solid-propellant missile program and has no said a future satellite launch ...
01.22.2020 Investigating PS752 with Open-Source Intelligence After the Iranian ballistic missile raid on U.S. forces in Iraq, the IRGC appears to have accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner flying out of Tehran. The Iranian government took about 3 days to admit that it was shot down, ...
01.14.2020 Iran’s Missile Strikes in Iraq As it turns out, the ACW trio thinks that Iran’s missiles are accurate. Super accurate. As Anne flies across the United States, Aaron and Jeffrey spoke about Iran’s ballistic missile strikes Ain Assad Air Base in Iraq, why the strike ...
01.08.2020 Iran's Fifth Step The ACW crew discusses the JCPOA...again. Iran has announced its 5th step away from the JCPOA. The trio discusses what that means, what it doesn't mean, and where we go from here. And, for your ease of reference, Iran's Five ...
12.12.2019 The U.S.'s Post-INF Ballistic Missile Launch a missile, get a pod, post-INF Treaty edition. On December 12, 2019, the U.S. Air Force and the Strategic Capabilities office tested a "prototype conventionally-configured, ground-launched ballistic missile" from Vandenberg AFB. The trio talks Twitter hot takes, the Strategic ...
12.12.2019 North Korea's Mysterious Engine Test Sohae is open for business! The ACW Gang talks North Korea's recent engine test at Sohae and marvels (again) at the power of satellite imagery. Was this test Kim's "Christmas Gift" to Trump? Or just a stocking stuffer? Support us ...
12.12.2019 The Future of Opens Skies What is the future of the Open Skies Treaty? The Arms Control Wonk trio talk the Open Skies Treaty, the conspiracy theories that now permeate the debate about Russian aircraft, and why the treaty matters. Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!
11.13.2019 Iran's Four Steps Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has announce yet another "step" away from the JCPOA, the fourth this year. As Iran resumes feeding UF6 into some of the cascades at the Fordow Enrichment Plant, Anne and Jeffrey discuss the steps that led ...
11.06.2019 China's 70th National Day Parade Everybody loves a parade, especially one with missiles and drones. Superproducer Scott joins Jeffrey and Anne to discuss the new hardware displayed in early October, and how great it is to watch the PRC's flag-raising ceremony. Scott has waited seven ...
10.15.2019 Tailkits and the Turks: US Nuclear Weapons in Turkey The New York Times reported recently that US officials are considering removing US nuclear weapons from Turkey. Aaron knows a bit about this, so Jeffrey called in from his car on the road to San Francisco, and Anne called in ...
10.08.2019 North Korea's New SLBM: The Pukguksong-3 It is finally here! Two years after seeing posters for the Pukguksong-3 during Kim Jong Un's visit to the Chemical Material Institute of the Academy of Defense Science in 2017, the North Korea has finally tested the next generation of ...
09.19.2019 An Iranian Missile Attack on Saudi Arabia? Iran may have just rocketed oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. The ACW trio asks what else is new, after time spent analyzing Qiam strikes on Riyadh. With tensions increasing in the Gulf, and questions about a potential US strike to ...
09.14.2019 Abadeh Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking just days before an election, revealed an alleged new nuclear site in Iran, dubbed Abadeh. On this week's episode, the ACW trio talk about the revelation, what the satellite pictures show may be happening ...
08.22.2019 Russia's Mysterious Nuclear-powered Missile Accident Russia tested something and maybe kinda sorta told the truth about a subsequent spike in radiation. What happened? who knows? In this episode, the ACW trio discuss the explosion in Nenoksa and why it may have been a test to ...
08.05.2019 Deproliferation in the Debates During one of the Democratic Presidential primary debates, Elizabeth Warren and Governor Whats-his-name sparred over nuclear weapons, no-first use and deproliferation. Aaron, Anne and Jeffrey discuss the use of jargon in gate-keeping and the merits of various proposals relating to ...
07.11.2019 CTBTO 2019 Jeffrey and Anne attended the CTBTO's 2019 Science and Technology Conference in Vienna, which means this is another Wienerpod! Aaron calls in to get the lowdown on the state of the CTBT and the evolving technological environment for nuclear test ...
06.26.2019 First Combat Use: Turkey's Bora Missile Turkey used a ballistic missile, the Bora, for the first time in combat. Launch a missile, get a pod! Aaron, Anne and Jeffrey discuss the Bora, geolocating the launch site, and the state of missile proliferation in the Middle East. ...
06.14.2019 Low-yield Nuclear Testing in Russia? The United States intelligence community, or a portion of it, has concluded that Russia is conducting very low-yield nuclear tests. Aaron and Jeffrey discuss past allegations of nuclear testing, open source monitoring of Russia's nuclear test site at Novaya Zemlya ...

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