Aging ICBMs Must Be Replaced, Not Refurbished, STRATCOM Chief Says
Even the people who once knew how to fix them are “not alive anymore,†Richard says.
By Patrick Tucker
Technology Editor
January 6, 2021
Amid reports that the Biden administration may scale back a planned 30-year, $1.2 trillion nuclear-modernization plan, the leader of U.S. Strategic Command wants everyone to know: America’s 400 ICBMs are so old that fixing them would cost more than the current effort to replace them.
“Let me be very clear: you can not life-extend Minuteman III, right? It is getting past the point where it is cost-effective to life-extend Minuteman III. We’re getting to the point where you can’t do it at all,†Adm. Charles Richard, the head of U.S. Strategic Command or STRATCOM, told reporters Tuesday.
Without naming anyone, he took a swift swipe at think tank studies suggesting otherwise. You don’t know how old and out-of-date these are until you are looking them in the circuit board, Richard argued.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2021/01/aging-icbms-must-be-replaced-not-refurbished-stratcom-chief-says/171210/
