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Kelsey D. Atherton, now available on Bluesky Profile picture
Kelsey D. Atherton, now available on Bluesky
@AthertonKD
War, robots, & other bad futures. Military tech writer, opinions my own. Unitarian Universalist. He/him. Husband to @alymaybe & father to a kiddo who is offline
3 subscribers
Aug 23, 2022 • 30 tweets • 11 min read
Iron & Wine

In the dewy stillness of the morning, you think about getting backyard chickens but never do. Your will contains a precise list of every location you want your ashes scattered, & you're still not sure how Junior's little league schedule works

Galaxie 500

You never did move to Olympia. You found a stable gig in a heat belt college town, & if you don't pay too much attention on open mic nights the music is good enough. Now you check PPM & Zillow prices daily, hoping your kids will pick Evergreen
Aug 10, 2022 • 34 tweets • 6 min read
"In the way that 109 Palace was the gateway to nuclear oblivion, I hope that the Basilica of St. Francis can be the gateway to global nuclear disarmament." - Archbishop John Wester The interior of the cathedral basillica of st francis of ass Now onto the panel part of the evening Booklet that reads "living in the light of Christ's Pea
May 16, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This is going around, so let me say that anyone looking to ground themselves in the history of the decision to use the bomb should read this as a primer blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2020/06/09/wha… it captures primary sources before the bombing, and talks about after-the-fact justifications made. What I think is perhaps most important, as outlined in the history below, is that the bomb's use was an accumulation of smaller decisions by a host of people, while the decision on August 10 to not use more bombs came directly and cleanly from Truman. blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2020/06/09/wha…
Mar 16, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Real quick: the US has no drones in use that can fight other aircraft (some are in development).

"Tactical" means, like "useful for scouting a town over" and also "can carry some some bombs."

This is about a tool to hit ground forces, not contest the skies. If it includes "switchblades," they're an edge case for armed drones, because they're basically slow missiles/drones that explode on contact/short-duration loitering munitions. But if you think of them as missiles+, that's probably closest to the gist.
Mar 14, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Nuclear weapons aren't there to guarantee stability and security, they exist to ensure regime survival even if everything else goes disastrous in the conventional war.

What has changed most over the last 30 years has been the slow and careful work of arsenal reduction treaties, One of the reasons Dr. Strangelove continues to resonate is it makes effective satire after the darkest truth of nuclear arsenals, which is that a misreading of stakes and a failure to communicate can end nations all at once through error & malice. Infrastructure of oblivion, man
Mar 3, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
What is "Integrated deterrence?" well it "creates options for decision-makers. Integrated deterrence involves every combatant command in every domain."

Okay, what options? "all levers of national power to improve capabilities, understand regional security, & grow partnerships" So it doesn't say how, but what's being deterred here?

"capabilities below the nuclear threshold to hold us at risk with the idea that they can delay, disrupt our force flow, or destroy our will, so that we don't project power into their regional crisis or regional conflict"
Mar 2, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
1) they were Soviet nuclear weapons, held in Ukraine, but the locks and command infrastructure were in Moscow. Ukraine did not give up weapons it controlled, it negotiated a return of weapons it didn't.

2) A No Fly Zone is just a prelude to nuclear war with more steps. It has been clear that the Biden administration sees a direct attack on a NATO member as the line that warrants full US response. Urging escalation without the support of the government that would be most needed to follow-through on escalation is not going to work out for anyone.
Mar 2, 2022 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
@Noahpinion, it has been a day, but I have filed my piece on nuclear risk, which I encourage you to read and share. The machinery of nuclear retaliation constrains state action at the highest levels, and is important to understand. popsci.com/technology/nuc… I’ve read Ibrahim al-Assil’s thread. I’m leaving him untagged because this is a beef you picked with me. I think, ultimately, that while the thread is about a perception of the American left, it is instead an attempt to shame a projected American left for not cheering more wars.
Mar 2, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
For @PopSci, I wrote about nuclear weapons, and what it means when a shooting war takes place in the shadows of the still-active Cold War architecture of oblivion popsci.com/technology/nuc… I've written about nuclear weapons...a lot, and this time I really wanted to get down to the basics of how these inherited (and modernized!) Cold War arsenals persist and shape policy, with the calls to greater nuclear readiness as a hook. popsci.com/technology/nuc…
Feb 28, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
not a World War until there's fighting on at least three continents we can describe Russia's invasion of Ukraine many ways, and the international response similarly, but it's not repeating old patterns until it actually repeats old patterns. What's remarkable, more than anything else, is the lack of internationalization of fighting.
Feb 11, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
you ever think about how CIA was caught spying on the Senate's investigation of CIA torture & then the CIA's Inspector General was told by Deputy NatSec Advisor Avril Haines not to discipline the personnel who did it, & then the Senate confirmed Haines to be Biden's DNI man I wish I were making this up
Feb 8, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
New Mexico would, at the moment of independence, be in possession of the third-largest nuclear arsenal, but also the arsenal most lacking delivery systems, since they're all warheads held in reserve and awaiting decommissioning. Best-case scenario it ends like Ukraine 1994. "Ukraine never had the ability to launch those missiles or to use those warheads. The security measures against unauthorized use were under Moscow’s control. The Ukrainians might have found ways around those security measures, or they might not have." nucleardiner.wordpress.com/2022/02/06/cou…
Feb 1, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Seven years ago, I wrote about robot dog funerals for @PopSci. That story featured a picture of our late @StellahtheDog, & so I revisited it at length for my latest newsletter, aided by a copy of Kate Darling's "The New Breed" that I finally cracked open. athertonkd.substack.com/p/funeral-ritu… @PopSci @StellahtheDog Here's the original: popsci.com/worlds-saddest…