Are American Nuclear Missiles On Hair-Trigger Alert?

In the real world, it is important to remember what President John F. Kennedy said about America's newly built Minuteman missiles: that they were his "ace in the hole" and prevented the Cuban missile crisis from ending in Armageddon. Pictured: An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test on August 2, 2017, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California (Image source: U.S. Air Force)

Peter Huessy, Gatestone Institute: "Dangerous Nuclear Schemes"

The proposed policies, if adopted by the new leadership in the House, would certainly fracture whatever consensus exists today to modernize America's strategic nuclear deterrent -- and at a time when both Russia and China are charging ahead militarily, and Iran and North Korea are racing toward a deliverable nuclear weapons capability.

If the United States chooses to eliminate its land-based missiles, as arms control advocates have proposed, it would dramatically and dangerously simplify an adversary's targeting calculus. The US would be reducing more than 500 distinct American-based nuclear-related targets -- including 450 Minuteman silos and 48 launch control centers spread across five American states -- down to only five continental US targets -- three USAF bomber bases, and two submarines bases -- and only roughly 10 targets if US submarines at sea were included.

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WNU Editor: U.S. nuclear forces have always been on alert, but they are constrained from firing because they need the President's codes to launch. But the debate on what to do with America's nuclear forces is now heating up. Modernization of the force will cost a trillion dollars, and in response Congress is entertaining the idea that maintaining the nuclear triad is too expensive, and that maybe a sea and air nuclear deterrent with a unilateral cutback in nuclear weapons is all that is needed. I think this is a mistake. If it works, don't fix it. But America is a different country, and we now exist in an environment where even the issue of border security has become a bipartisan affair.