That’s about $400 each for every woman, man and child in the USA. The US already has enough deployed nuclear bombs to annihilate the planet dozens of times over, many on submarines that make a surprise attack impossible.
A new US policy is to reject all international treaties and make smaller nuclear weapons to be ‘used alongside conventional forces’.. an obvious new danger. Chinese nuclear forces are tiny in comparison, but enough to destroy the US in retaliation.
$13.3 billion for new nuclear missiles
by Christina MacPherson, shared with thanks
Air Force awards Northrop Grumman $13.3 billion contract for new nuclear missiles, Market Watch Sept. 8, 2020 By Associated Press Critics call project wasteful, but Esper says nuclear arsenal ”needs to be modernized”
WASHINGTON — The Air Force on Tuesday awarded a $13.3 billion contract for engineering and development work on a replacement for the Minuteman 3 missile, which has operated continuously for half a century as a key part of the nuclear force.
Critics call the replacement project wasteful and dangerous. Democrat Joe Biden has not said whether he would, if elected in November, support the project, known officially as the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent. The project has bipartisan support in Congress.
The announcement came just one day after President Donald Trump assailed Pentagon leaders as eager to fight wars to generate profits for defense contractors. Trump at times has lamented the enormous cost of maintaining a big nuclear arsenal, but his defense budgets have supported nuclear modernization.
Award of the contract to Northrop Grumman NOC, +1.45% is a big step in a project that is estimated to eventually cost at least $85 billion. …….. Critics, however, say the $13.3 billion sole-source contract for Northrop Grumman is driven more by political inertia than military necessity.
“Our nation faces major security challenges, including a global pandemic that has killed almost 200,000 Americans, and we shouldn’t spend our limited resources on new nuclear weapons that we don’t need and make us less safe,” said William J. Perry, who served as defense secretary in the Clinton administration and has written extensively since then on the dangers posed by nuclear weapons.
“The highest probability of starting a nuclear war is a mistaken launch caused by a false alarm and a rushed decision to launch nuclear-armed ICBMs,” Perry said in a written statement. “Instead of spending billions of dollars on new nuclear missiles we don’t need, we must focus on preventing accidental nuclear war.”
September 10, 2020 – Posted by Christina MacPherson | USA, weapons and war
The massive modernization program.. $494 billion for the period 2019–2028 .. wikipedia
- – initiated under the Obama administration and known as “the program of record” – to replace or upgrade
- (a) all nuclear delivery systems (specifically: a new class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), a new nuclear-capable strategic bomber, a new long-range air-launched cruise missile (LRSO), a new intercontinental ballistic missile (GBSD), and a new nuclear-capable tactical fighter-bomber aircraft (F-35A);
- (b) the command and control systems at the US Department of Defense; and
- (c) the nuclear warheads and their supporting infrastructure at the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. According to an estimate published in January 2019 by the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO), modernizing and operating the US nuclear arsenal and the facilities that support it will cost around $494 billion for the period 2019–2028 (Congressional Budget Office 2019.)
The Free 