Is Our Nuclear Stockpile Safe? Questions For The Head of Global Strike Command

Photo: Crews at Malmstrom Air Force Base fit a dummy nuclear warhead onto a missile. (Photo by Jonothan Targovnick)

Questions For Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, Head Of Global Strike Command -- Popular Mechanics

In 2011, nuclear weapons will take center stage of defense negotiations as the United States Senate debates the ratification of the New START treaty with Russia. The treaty will reduce the amount of warheads in the U.S. and Russian arsenals. But the nukes aren't going anywhere. In April the Obama administration released a Nuclear Posture Review, the third since the end of the Cold War, that says—somewhat in contrast to the president's oft-repeated desire to "work toward a world without nuclear weapons"—that U.S. policy is to retain its nuclear triad of bombers, ICBMs and submarine-launched missiles. "As long as nuclear weapons exist, the United States will sustain safe, secure and effective nuclear forces," it states. The security of those weapons has been questioned after an incident in late October knocked out communications between an underground launch center and the ICBMs. PM recently sat down at the Pentagon with Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, the commander of Global Strike Command, to discuss the state of America's nuclear arsenal, from the treaty tables to the missile silos.

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