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The Cold War is over. And so is the need for America’s land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Not only are the costs of maintaining 450 Minuteman-III missiles unsustainable, keeping them in the nuclear arsenal is hardly practical. Maintaining hundreds of outdated, budget-draining Minuteman-IIIs when the Pentagon has the more accurate, multi-dimensional Trident II that can be shot from Ohio-class submarines that are virtually undetectable makes little sense.
It’s already estimated that modernizing America’s nuclear stockpile will cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion over 30 years. The U.S. Air Force wants to replace the current land-based ICBM force with newer missiles that are estimated to cost more than $100 billion, which is 60 percent greater than the figure the Defense Department set last summer.
But scrapping the Minuteman-III will not only save money, it will show Russia, and other emerging nuclear powers like India and Pakistan that America is serious about non-proliferation. From both a financial, tactical and leadership standpoint, America and the rest of the world will be better off if Washington puts aside its political posturing and kill the land-based leg of its nuclear triad—the land, air and sea-based platforms America uses to launch its nuclear weapons.
The idea would be met with fierce opposition, some of which would be understandable. Washington has long struggled to reign in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and Pyongyang’s ICBM test on the Fourth of July wasn’t encouraging.
Former President Barack Obama was a vocal advocate of denuclearization early on in his presidency, but Congress never supported his efforts. The Kremlin certainly didn’t make Obama’s efforts easier by modernizing its own nuclear weapons program and violating New START.
None of this is enough to justify keeping the Minuteman-III stockpile.
If the Trump administration approached nuclear defense with a sober, non-partisan outlook, it would realize that land-based ICBMs are nothing more than dated, hollow symbols of American security that don’t offer the nuclear deterrent protection their advocates claim.
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It’s already estimated that modernizing America’s nuclear stockpile will cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion over 30 years. The U.S. Air Force wants to replace the current land-based ICBM force with newer missiles that are estimated to cost more than $100 billion, which is 60 percent greater than the figure the Defense Department set last summer.
But scrapping the Minuteman-III will not only save money, it will show Russia, and other emerging nuclear powers like India and Pakistan that America is serious about non-proliferation. From both a financial, tactical and leadership standpoint, America and the rest of the world will be better off if Washington puts aside its political posturing and kill the land-based leg of its nuclear triad—the land, air and sea-based platforms America uses to launch its nuclear weapons.
The idea would be met with fierce opposition, some of which would be understandable. Washington has long struggled to reign in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and Pyongyang’s ICBM test on the Fourth of July wasn’t encouraging.
Former President Barack Obama was a vocal advocate of denuclearization early on in his presidency, but Congress never supported his efforts. The Kremlin certainly didn’t make Obama’s efforts easier by modernizing its own nuclear weapons program and violating New START.
None of this is enough to justify keeping the Minuteman-III stockpile.
If the Trump administration approached nuclear defense with a sober, non-partisan outlook, it would realize that land-based ICBMs are nothing more than dated, hollow symbols of American security that don’t offer the nuclear deterrent protection their advocates claim.
deadspin-quote-carrot-aligned-w-bgr-2<\/title><path d="M10,3.5l3-3,3,3Z" style="fill:%23fff;stroke:%23fff"/><path d="M0,3.5H10l3-3,3,3H26" style="fill:none;stroke:%231b3a4d"/><\/svg>')}.f_branding_on.blog-group-deadspin .editor-inner.post-content .pu