POSTED BY: RICHARD SISK
We are in a crazy world” of proliferating nuclear threats that will persist for generations to come and require the U.S. to invest $80 billion to $100 billion in new ICBMs to deter adversaries, Air Force Gen. Robin Rand said Monday.
“There are bad characters around the world” who “need to know we’re ready,” Rand, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said during a strategic deterrence panel at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber convention.
New Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles that will eventually replace the current arsenal of about 400 aging Minuteman III missiles would help “keep the world from spinning completely off its axis,” he said.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of the 20th Air Force in Global Strike Command, said, “We’re ready to do business with the weapons systems on alert right now,” but GBSD would bring new deterrent capabilities to the land-based component of the nation’s nuclear triad of missiles, bombers, and submarines.
Maintaining Credibility
Deterrence is about “projecting credibility,” Cotton said. “As soon as you lose that credibility, deterrence goes away.”
To maintain credibility, the Air Force must develop “an even more lethal weapon system” in the GBSD, he said.
The deterrent value of the ground-based leg of the nuclear triad was questioned in 2009 when the Obama administration engaged in “a very serious discussion about eliminating the ICBM force,” retired Maj. Gen. Roger Burg, a former commander of the 20th Air Force, said in a panel discussion.
However, the Obama administration eventually “decided to retain the ICBM force,” said Burg, now president of O’Malley Consulting.
The Minuteman III missiles still provide an effective deterrent but they are not cost effective to maintain, Cotton said. Cost estimates on the GBSD range from $80 billion to $100 billion to give the U.S. a new ground-based leg of the triad through 2075.
“We are putting our money where our mouth is in regards to revitalization and modernization of a very potent weapons system” to make it “an even more lethal weapons system in the future,” Cotton said.
https://www.defensetech.org/2017/09/19/us-needs-400-new-nuclear-icbms-deter-crazy-world-general/
