Nuclear silo pizza delivery12/12/2023 ![]() ![]() “Given the budgetary pressures … the tradeoff is most likely to be with the ICBM force,” Acton said. Submarines and stealth bombers are less vulnerable to enemy attack than ground-based missiles, and ICBMs are “virtually useless from a signaling perspective,” he said. James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted that the Defense Department is facing a “bow wave” of expenditures on strategic forces.Īs concerns about the budget deficit grow in the coming years, “there are going to be real tradeoffs that are going to have to be made,” he said during a panel at the Heritage Foundation. “We can’t do everything we’re contemplating doing.” “We can save money on the nuclear deterrent,” Smith said. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the total cost of the strategic arsenal will be $325 billion between 20, with the annual bill further increasing in subsequent years as the Pentagon fields next-generation systems. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said at a recent conference hosted by McAleese & Associates and Credit Suisse. “We need to modernize our nuclear force and our nuclear deterrent - that’s not debatable,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. As Perry writes, “we do not have to take that terrible risk anymore. It is only a matter of time before the odds add up to a catastrophic failure. Human errors and machine errors do occur. When it comes to nuclear weapons, it only takes one. ![]() And the consequences would be astronomical. The honest truth is that the probability is low but not zero. One can imagine the same bromides being used before the Titanic sank or the Space Shuttle exploded. They reassure us that the chance of a false alarm is “at an all-time low” and that “the statistical probability that the United States would launch ICBMs as a result of a false alarm is close to zero.” Such language is dangerously irresponsible. It is shocking that senior officials in the nuclear weapons business do not take the risk of false alarms seriously. that hundreds of Russian nuclear missiles were landing in minutes? Would he have the temperament to realize that it could be a false alarm, or would he impulsively launch a counter attack? No one else has the authority to make this call, and once the missiles fly they cannot be called back. How would President Trump respond if he were told at 3 a.m. ![]() ![]() Luckily, it was not the end of the world, but just a computer glitch. Forty years ago, Perry himself was awakened in the middle of the night and told that Pentagon computers were showing 200 ICBMs on their way from the Soviet Union. There have been at least three false alarms in the United States that could have led to a mistaken nuclear war. Why? Because there is no way to know for sure (and you want to be sure) that the feared Russian attack is real. And the only sane decision is not to launch. Either way, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming are toast.īut here is the rub: President Trump would have about 10 minutes to make this fate-of-the-world decision. So if Russia attacks them (no other country could), President Trump has only two options: launch the missiles before the attack arrives (and destroy Russia), or wait and let them be destroyed in the ground. They sit out in the open and everyone, including Vladimir Putin, knows exactly where they are. land-based missiles are highly vulnerable. What are Perry and Mattis talking about? Nothing less than a nuclear nightmare, in which atomic weapons are used by mistake. Last year, before he became defense secretary, Mattis asked if it was time to remove the land-based missiles, as “This would reduce the false alarm danger.” And, as former Defense Secretary Bill Perry has written, it would also address the concern that ICBMs “could trigger an accidental nuclear war.” This would save a boatload of money and take the missile states out of the crosshairs. The United States can safely phase out the existing ICBMs without replacing them. ![]()
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