Nuclear vs. Conventional Spending? We Don’t Have that Luxury

[rebewranger]

Nuclear vs. Conventional Spending? We Don’t Have that Luxury

The call to boost one at the expense of the other is wrong.
ERIC S. EDELMAN and FRANKLIN MILLER | MAY 19, 2022
COMMENTARY NAVY NATO CORONAVIRUS
   
Voltaire reportedly once remarked “Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies.” This thought immediately came to mind as we read a recent commentary in Defense One recommending dramatic increases to America’s military stocks for the next five years, and the cost of its nuclear weapons.

In “Four Lessons Should Upend Pentagon’s Five-Year Strategy,” John Ferrari, now a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, raises concerns about a deficit in War Reserve Munitions. His thinking about a possible war in this decade and the effects of inflation on the defense budget are spot-on. We would be the first to agree that that Defense Department topline needs something like 5 percent real annual growth to keep pace with the unprecedented national security challenges facing the nation.

But the call to increase defense spending for conventional capabilities at the expense of modernizing our nuclear forces could not be more wrong. Spending increases for both are necessary.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/05/nuclear-vs-conventional-spending-we-dont-have-luxury/367182/

[Smokin Joe]

Considering how the MX platforms and 10 warhead buses were scrapped, and that the Minuteman III missiles are almost as old as the B-52, it might just be time to upgrade.

Yes, no one wants nuclear war. That's precisely why these systems and their successors should exist, because of that very deterrent factor. With others developing hypersonic platforms, keeping up with the Jones' is a good idea.

With all the piddling around with near one-off aircraft, and entire classes of ships that crack and have a hard time clearing the breakwater, maybe we'd better consider investing some money in competent engineering and construction of the next generation of weapons which help keep us fro having to use the other systems out there in peer conflict.