FAS Roundup: March 25, 2013 U.S. Navy retires Tomahawk cruise missile, missile defense developments and much more.

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FAS Roundup: March 25, 2013  U.S. Navy retires Tomahawk cruise missile, missile defense developments and much more.

From the Blogs U.S. Navy Instruction Confirms Retirement of  Nuclear Tomahawk Cruise Missile: Hans Kristensen writes that although the U.S. Navy has yet to make a formal announcement that the nuclear Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile (TLAM/N) has been retired, a new updated navy instruction shows that the weapon is gone. The retirement of the TLAM/N completes a 25-year process of eliminating all non-strategic naval nuclear weapons from the U.S. Navy’s arsenal.  NASA Technical Reports Database Goes Dark: This week NASA abruptly took the massive NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) offline. Steven Aftergood writes that  though no explanation for the removal was offered, it appeared to be in response to concerns that export controlled information was contained in the collection. Q&A on Recent Developments in U.S. and NATO Missile Defense: FAS's Charles Blair interviews two physicists who are experts in missile defense issues, Dr. Yousaf Butt and Dr. George Lewis, on last week’s announcement by Secretary of Defense Hagel to cancel Phase 4 of the of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) to missile defense. In September 2011, FAS released the report Upsetting the Reset: The Technical Basis of Russian Concerns Over NATO Defense by Yousaf Butt and Theodore Postol, which recommended that the Obama administration not deploy the last phase of the missile defense system. Secret Sessions of Congress and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such as Europe's energy security, taxes on gun sales to support wildlife, public mass shootings in the United States and U.S.-China military contacts. Classification Complaint Arising From Thomas Drake Case Dismissed: In July 2011, J. William Leonard, a former director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), took the extraordinary step of filing a formal complaint with the Office he once led charging that a document used to indict former NSA official Thomas Drake under the Espionage Act had been wrongly classified in violation of the executive order on classification. Last December, in a newly disclosed response, John P. Fitzpatrick, the current ISOO director, concluded that Mr. Leonard’s complaint did not warrant the sanctions that Mr. Leonard had urged.

FAS Fellow Named to Working Group on Emerging Security Challenges Eddie Walsh, Adjunct Fellow for Emerging Technologies and High-end Threats, was recently named to the Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes (PfPC) Working Group on Emerging Security Challenges. In this capacity, Mr. Walsh attended the inaugural PfPC Emerging Security Challenges Workshop at the NATO Defence College in Rome earlier this month. Walsh’s participation in the PfPC Working Group provides FAS with a unique opportunity to collaborate with NATO and PfP nations on the global security challenges presented by emerging security threats.

Event: Taking on Nuclear Deterrance On Tuesday, April 9, 2013, Dr. Martin Hellman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and Advisor to the FAS Nuclear Security Program, will speak at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Manufacturing Research Center on “The Wisdom of Foolishness: Taking on Nuclear Deterrence”. The event is co-sponsored by the Daisy Alliance, Georgia Tech’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Center for International Strategy, Technology & Policy, Nuclear & Radiological Engineering Program and the General Ray Davis Memorial Fund. More information on the event available here. Click here to RSVP.

FAS in the News Mar 21: Christian Science Monitor, "The Real Warning in Syrian Chemical Weapons Claims" Mar 21: Yahoo! News, "547 Dead, 476 Hurt In Mass Shootings Since 1983" Mar 20: CNN.com, "Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What?" Mar 20: Global Security Newswire, "Tomahawk Nuke Missile Pulled From Navy Service" Mar 20: Christian Science Monitor, "All Signs Point To No Lethal Chemical Weapons Attack In Syria" Mar 19: Al Jazeera, "U.S. Wades In On Syrian Chemical Weapon Claims"

About the FAS Roundup: We send you this weekly collection of publications, posts, events, and media appearances by FAS Experts and their work to keep you up to date with the issue areas that we cover. To ensure that you receive future FAS Roundups, sign up for FAS News and Updates.