Bad Idea: De-Alert U.S. ICBMs

Bad Idea: De-Alert U.S. ICBMs
Bad Idea: De-Alert U.S. ICBMs

We’re partnering with the Center for Strategic and International Studies to bring you their fab Bad Ideas series through the Christmas holiday season. This one deals with an issue our readers have grappled with several times over the last decade — should America take its ICBMs off alert. It’s sure to have been a central discussion…

The New U.S. Nuclear Triad Will Be A Bargain

The New U.S. Nuclear Triad Will Be A Bargain
The New U.S. Nuclear Triad Will Be A Bargain

Is America’s nuclear arsenal too expensive? The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report that concludes the Trump Administration’s plans to operate, sustain and recapitalize the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal over 30 years would cost the American people $1.2 trillion in constant dollars. The report explains ways in which delaying or cancelling the recapitalization of parts of…

Boeing, Lockheed Submit UH-1N Replacement Bids

Boeing, Lockheed Submit UH-1N Replacement Bids
Boeing, Lockheed Submit UH-1N Replacement Bids

ABOVE DULLES AIRPORT: Eager to get out its message that the Boeing-Leonardo MH-139 helicopter would save the US taxpayer $1 billion as the replacement of the UH-1N helicopter, Boeing flew several journalists this afternoon to demonstrate its capabilities. (Boeing’s Rick Lemaster makes the case in our video above). Boeing also delivered nine boxes to the…

Kim Jong-un Has Much To Teach Pentagon About Speed: Gen. Hyten

Kim Jong-un Has Much To Teach Pentagon About Speed: Gen. Hyten
Kim Jong-un Has Much To Teach Pentagon About Speed: Gen. Hyten

HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: The morning the news broke that North Korea could tip its ICBMs with nuclear warheads, the US general in charge of strategic deterrence said we could a learn a lot from Kim Jong-un. America prides itself on innovation, but today, said Gen. John Hyten, in matters military, our adversaries are innovating faster because…

New ICBM Cheaper Than Upgraded Minuteman: Boeing On GBSD

New ICBM Cheaper Than Upgraded Minuteman: Boeing On GBSD
New ICBM Cheaper Than Upgraded Minuteman: Boeing On GBSD

ARLINGTON: A brand-new ICBM may cost the nation more than $85 billion, but keeping the geriatric Minuteman will cost even more. That’s according to Boeing, the aerospace giant that began building the original Minuteman I in 1958 and has maintained the much-modified Minuteman III since 1970. Sure, the company can reset the odometer on the…

Renew and Strengthen America’s Strategic Deterrent

Renew and Strengthen America’s Strategic Deterrent
Renew and Strengthen America’s Strategic Deterrent

Many Americans are asking whether the three legs of the nuclear triad are still relevant. My answer to this question is an emphatic, yes. Today’s discussion should not be about “if” we recapitalize the triad, but instead how to enhance the execution of the strategic deterrence mission. Since the end of the 1950s, the United…

Air Force Abandons Sole Source Nuke Helos Deal

Air Force Abandons Sole Source Nuke Helos Deal
Air Force Abandons Sole Source Nuke Helos Deal

With legislators demanding open competition for new helicopters to carry security teams to far-flung missile silos in an emergency, the Air Force has bowed to congressional pressure. Sikorsky had been hopeful of a $1.4 billion sole-source deal to replace the aging UH-1N helicopters, whose poor performance in counterterrorism drills had the Air Force saying it needed to bypass…

Why We Still Need Those Nuclear Missile Silos

Why We Still Need Those Nuclear Missile Silos
Why We Still Need Those Nuclear Missile Silos

  Some anti-nuclear groups along with former Secretary of Defense William Perry suggest eliminating ICBMs in part to save money on upcoming nuclear modernization. Getting rid of ICBMs would be a serious mistake. The U.S. nuclear triad protects the U.S. homeland and allies from a surprise nuclear attack with three types of nuclear delivery systems:…

LRS Bomber Shows Failings Of Obama’s Nuclear Strategy

LRS Bomber Shows Failings Of Obama’s Nuclear Strategy
LRS Bomber Shows Failings Of Obama’s Nuclear Strategy

Lost in much of the initial coverage of the $80 billion Long Range Strike Bomber about specs and jobs is that the contract award is the latest step forward in an unnecessary and unsustainable projected spending binge to rebuild the U.S. nuclear arsenal in its current image. According to a January 2015 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, the direct costs of the…

Navy Wants To Work With Air Force On New Nukes: VADM Benedict

Navy Wants To Work With Air Force On New Nukes: VADM Benedict
Navy Wants To Work With Air Force On New Nukes: VADM Benedict

CAPITOL HILL: As the Air Force train pulls out of the station, the Navy’s running alongside asking to be pulled aboard. Both services will need to replace aging nuclear missiles sometime ca. 2030. They could save money by coordinating their modernization programs — but the Air Force is on a tighter schedule and the window…

Want Stability? Fund Nuke Triad Modernization

Want Stability? Fund Nuke Triad Modernization
Want Stability? Fund Nuke Triad Modernization

Nuclear modernization will receive at least $1.2 billion more this year than last year’s $23.5 billion if the president’s Defense Department budget request is approved. Modernization funding for nuclear weapons and their delivery systems comprise 4 percent of the defense budget and 0.6 percent of the Federal budget. These include : the Ohio-class submarine replacement program (ORP);…

Rethinking The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent

Rethinking The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent
Rethinking The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent

The United States Air Force needs to replace the Minuteman III ICBM fleet at the three nuclear missile bases in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. Critics decry the cost of a proposed replacement, thought to be in the range of several hundred billion dollars. Their main argument against replacing ICBMs is not the cost of replacing the…

Nuclear Woes Drive $7.5B Increase; DepSecDef Work Takes On Nuke Oversight

Nuclear Woes Drive $7.5B Increase; DepSecDef Work Takes On Nuke Oversight
Nuclear Woes Drive $7.5B Increase; DepSecDef Work Takes On Nuke Oversight

PENTAGON: It isn’t official but Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work hinted today that the United States will undertake a fundamental reordering of its national security budget by paying for new nuclear submarines, new nuclear bombers and new ICBMs in new accounts set aside just for them. “This is something we have discussed in the department,” Work…