Tuesday, October 31, 2017

CBO Report: Updating And Sustaining America's Nuclear Arsenal Will Cost $1.2 Trillion Over 30 Years

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) streaks through the sky of Vandenberg in California, August 25, 2005. The U.S. test fired its second ICBM in a week on Thursday. REUTERS

New York Times: Trump Plans for Nuclear Arsenal Require $1.2 Trillion, Congressional Review States

The report from the Congressional Budget Office was an authoritative accounting of the cost of rebuilding a nuclear arsenal that relies on Cold War-era technology.

The price tag of President Trump’s vision of remaking the American nuclear arsenal soared on Tuesday as a new government estimate put the cost of a 30-year makeover at $1.2 trillion, more than 20 percent higher than earlier figures.

The rebuilding proposal includes the nation’s nuclear weapons, bombers, missiles and submarines.

The report from the Congressional Budget Office was the most authoritative accounting yet of the full cost of rebuilding an aging, potentially vulnerable nuclear arsenal that often relies on Cold War-era technology. It was published just weeks before the Pentagon is supposed to issue its first broad nuclear strategy of the Trump administration, an assessment called the Nuclear Posture Review.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who had been a skeptic about the need to preserve the nuclear force’s 400 land-based missiles, in silos across the American West, said in September that he had changed his view and now believed it was necessary to preserve them.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The CBO report can be read here .... Approaches for Managing the Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2017 to 2046

More News On The $1.2 Trillion COst Of Updating And Sustaining America's Nuclear Arsenal Over 30 Years

CBO Says $1.2 Trillion Needed for Nuclear Weapons Overhaul -- US News and World Report/AP
US nuclear arsenal to cost $1.2tn over next 30 years, independent CBO report finds -- The Guardian
CBO: Updating, sustaining nuclear arsenal would cost $1.2T over 30 years -- The Hill
Modernizing America's nuclear arsenal would cost $1.2 trillion, CBO says -- PBS NewsHour
The $1.2 Trillion Question: Modernizing America's Nuclear Arsenal -- The National Interest Online

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is actually a fair price over 30 years and money well spent - in comparison to the f35..

Jay Farquharson said...

The pricetag is for just updating, ( new cores, new versions of the guidance systesm) etc, and maintaining the existing arsenal, over the next 30 years.

It doesn't include new weapons that Trump has proposed, ( mini nukes, bunker buster nukes), new delivery systems or expanding the arsenal to the old Cold War peak of 36,000.

Rand's Brodie ran the numbers in the 1960's. Minimally Assured Mutual Destruction, requires 150 20kt warheads, period. 300 ( missiles, subs, bombs) if you want guarantee's against an enemy first strike.

They run the numbers every few years, they've stayed the same.

The US has roughly 1500 in service, 6000 in storage.

Anonymous said...

Gotta have those nukes for ww3, otherwise your heart is just not in it^^

Jay Farquharson said...

If the US get's off 150 20kt nukes, and if China, Russia and everbody else get's off 150 20kt nukes,

Everybody on earth dies.

There's enough nukes on Earth to kill everybody on earth 49.6 times.