This post Trump’s Revival of the Nuclear Triad appeared first on Daily Reckoning.
Back in April, President Trump unleashed a Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, or MOAB, commonly called “mother of all bombs,” on a maze of tunnels and bunkers occupied by ISIS in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province. It is believed that 94 Islamic militants were killed.
Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, also known as the mother of all bombs. Source: U.S. Air Force
That attack came a week after President Trump authorized a missile strike on Syria in response to a poison gas attack allegedly carried out by the Syrian government. The use of the MOAB was only two days after North Korean officials threatened a nuclear strike on the U.S. mainland should hostilities break out.
It has been some time since the U.S. gave much thought to civil defense and rogue nuclear powers threatening the international order. But continued nuclear proliferation is changing that strategic environment.
Tuesday’s long-range missile test proves that North Korea is increasingly pushing out its missile development programs and is directly threatening nuclear action against the U.S.
There’s also the Iranian missile and nuclear energy programs that were given tacit approval by the Obama administration that have the Middle East on edge.
So it appears that the U.S. must once again consider the unthinkable. The U.S. must begin to develop a nuclear strategy beyond the traditional deterrence that has held these horrific weapons at bay for over 70 years.
But the first challenge is that the triad of U.S. nuclear weapons have suffered benign neglect since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and are in major need of upgrading.
Since 1945, the U.S. has spent over $5.5 trillion to establish a deterrence using nuclear weapons. These weapons can be delivered by means of three strategic systems, referred to as the nuclear triad.
The first is the strategic bomber fleet that operates from bases around the world. Key sites for these aircraft are places like Alaska. When I was a young infantry officer, one of our missions was to defend those air bases because of their importance to the strategic triad.
A B-52 strategic bomber.
There are also air bases in Diego Garcia, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and on the island of Guam, in the Pacific. These bases are situated so that America’s Strategic Air Command can reach anywhere at any time.
The second leg of the triad is the ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). They are in silos that are in the ground across the U.S., specifically in the Midwestern and northern states.
A ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The ICBMs have multiple warheads and are devastatingly effective systems. At any given moment, they take about 30 minutes from the time the president authorizes the launch to the time of impact.
The third leg of the triad is submarine-launched ballistic missiles. This is probably the most important of the triad because it’s the one …read more
Source:: Daily Reckoning feed
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