Congress fights over liberal cuts to America’s nuclear arsenal
by Abraham Mahshie, Defense Reporter |
| March 29, 2021 06:45 AM
Liberal members of Congress are seeking big-ticket items to slash from the Pentagon's budget, but conservative hawks warn some of their targets could put the Defense Department's nuclear deterrence strategy at risk and give an edge to adversaries such as China and Russia.
Influential Democratic members such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith have again zeroed in on long-overdue nuclear modernization efforts, despite China and Russia possessing new weapons.
This time, military leaders and nuclear security experts warn there is no more room for delay if the United States is to maintain all three legs of its nuclear triad and catch up to the investments made by peer adversaries. Those countries spent on their nuclear fleets while the U.S. was embroiled in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. The case for pro-nuclear members to avoid cuts that would delay needed modernization work is particularly strong for the 50-year-old Minutemen III ICBMs, which are the backbone of the land-based leg of the country’s nuclear triad.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/lawmakers-battle-over-liberal-target-nuclear-warhead-cuts-slash-pentagon-budget
