LLNS may have excluded the wrong people in last VSSOP? The exclusions were based on outdated job categories and related skills. ULM are now thinking that in the future, job categories and functional areas will have to be re-defined. The next VSSOP/ISP will be based on the new categories and functional areas. The questions I have are: 1) Why didnt they think of that before the transition. It seems like their style is “change things as you go”. Planning is out the window! 2) Who will give input on the new changes? The next RIF apparently is going to be more lucrative than the VSSOP. Depending on the length of employment, a RIFed person, not only gets their 1 week pay per year of service but also from 30 to 120 days notice, essentially 30 to 120 days pay. Please feel free to comment on the rumors or add new ones you actually heard.
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At least we now know Gates was more on the side of the weapons labs than even NNSA is.
Congress and the Obama Whitehouse seem ready to dither on this national security issue while both LLNL and LANL slowly die.
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Gates' behind-the-scenes attempt in June to resuscitate the idea [RRW], experts said, was a first real test of whether Obama as president would maintain his opposition to "rushing to produce a new generation of warheads," as he said during last year's campaign.
Even with Biden serving as a backstop against an RRW revival, Obama's national security team remains split over the matter and it is not certain which side will prevail.
"It's not clear where we're going to go [on the warhead issue]," one senior Defense Department official told GSN. "We need an effective stockpile [but] we haven't got a consensus within the administration on what that means. And so I can't say that, forever, this 'replacement' idea is verboten."
Insiders said the high-level discussion illustrated just the tip of the iceberg, reflecting a broader power struggle coalescing within the Obama administration's nuclear arms policy circles. The question: How to balance the president's ambitious vision for diminishing the global allure of nuclear weapons with domestic political pressure to maintain a robust U.S. arsenal?
To some extent, the evolving tug of war can be seen in Obama's own public words. On April 5, the president delivered a major address in Prague in which he laid out two facets of his nuclear weapons policy (see GSN, April 6).
"The United States will take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said. "To put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, and urge others to do the same."
He added, though: "Make no mistake: As long as these weapons exist, the United States will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies."
This has been going on for some time and it's not related to any administration. It's just the pace of decay has picked up in the last few years. The Lab was doomed the day the Soviet Union dissolved.
I don't think anybody suggested "changing mission", rather changing the way you achieve "the mission". Please reread my post.