Is America's Nuclear Missile Force Crumbling?

Photo: Staff Sgt. Kevin Gorney checks out the electrical system aboard an LGM-30F Minuteman III missile in its silo, Jan. 1, 1980. Air Force photo / Tech. Sgt. Bob Wickley

The Nation’s ICBM Force: Increasingly Creaky Broken Missiles -- Matthew Vanderschuere, Time

As the Air Force begins to dust off plans for the Minuteman III ICBM replacement, a stark choice faces the service.

On one hand, the time has come to replace them. On the other, the Air Force is strapped for cash, victim to a perfect storm of bureaucratic bloat, several rounds of defense cuts, and a fighter fleet exhausted by war and age.

The purpose of our strategic deterrent is simple: prevent nuclear weapons from ever being used. And the current Minuteman III inter-continental ballistic missile system, long in the tooth at 40 years old, is the foundation of that strategy.

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My Comment: While the U.S. ponders on what to do .... the Russians are not hesitating to modernize their nuclear forces.