Cloud of Controversy Looms Over Nuclear Weapons Modernization

[rangerrebew]

Cloud of Controversy Looms Over Nuclear Weapons Modernization
By Sandra Erwin
August 23, 2017

Donald Trump recently reminded the world that his “first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal.” And he tweeted: “Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”

The president’s hot rhetoric, alas, is about to collide with the cold fiscal and political realities of nuclear weapons modernization.

http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/08/23/cloud_of_controversy_looms_over_nuclear_weapons_modernization_112122.html

[Mad Max]

There should be no controversy. The ICBMs we currently have are way too old. The Minuteman III program developed in 1966 and entered service in 1970.The existing Minuteman-III missiles have been further improved over the decades in service, with more than $7 billion spent in the last decade to upgrade the 450 missiles.Minuteman-III missiles are regularly tested with launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base in order to validate the effectiveness, readiness, and accuracy of the weapon system, as well as to support the system's primary purpose, nuclear deterrence.In the early 1970s, the USAF tested air-launching a Minuteman 1b ICBM from a C-5A Galaxy transport aircraft. In 1974, the Space and Missile Systems Organization successfully conducted an Air Mobile Feasibility test where a C-5A Galaxy aircraft air-dropped the 86,000-pound missile from 20,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. The missile fell to 8,000 feet before its rocket engine fired. The 10-second engine burn carried the missile to 20,000 feet again before it dropped into the ocean. The test proved the feasibility of launching an intercontinental ballistic missile from the air.