$355 billion and more for USA’s nuclear weapons – Congress report

Lavishing funds on obsolete weapons designed to fight the Soviets robs our troops of the resources they need to fight terrorists. Policy makers need to reevaluate their spending plans on nuclear forces in the coming years to reflect today’s budgetary constraints and the diminishing utility of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense policy.

Are New Nuclear Weapons Affordable? HUFFINGTON POST12/20/20 Joe Cirincione President, Ploughshares A stunning new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows that the government will spend $355 billion over the next 10 years directly on nuclear weapons. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The CBO estimate does not show the final price of all the new nuclear missiles, submarines, and bombers that the Pentagon wants to buy. The total cost could be more than $1 trillion over the next few decades.

As the CBO report notes, at the beginning of the next decade nuclear costs will be “roughly 60 percent higher” than this year’s budget. “Annual costs are likely to continue to grow after 2023,” says the CBO, “as production begins on replacement systems.”

Here’s one example of how the nuclear weapons budget is about to explode. The U.S. Navy plans to replace its current fleet of 14 ballistic-missile submarines (which collectively deploy half of the U.S. strategic arsenal) with 12 new submarines at the rate of one boat per year between 2031 and 2044. The CBO estimated in a previous report that the Navy’s plans will consume at least 25 percent of its entire shipbuilding budget, crowding out new ships for conventional missions.

Cost estimates for the new fleet have soared in just four years. In 2010, the Navy issued plans for the new class of submarine — the SSBN(X) — estimating that the first boat off the line would cost $7 billion. By 2013, the Navy’s estimate grew to $12 billion for the first submarine, though the CBO estimated it would actually cost $13 billion, with an average cost of $7.2 billion per boat. In total, it will cost about $100 billion just to develop and build the subs. The total cost to build, outfit, and operate this new fleet over its expected lifetime will be $350 billion.

It is not just the money that we need to worry about. The Navy will be forced to cut its surface fleet in order to afford the new nuclear subs. The Navy will not reach its goal of 300 ships if it buys all the subs, warns Vice Admiral William Burke, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems. “In fact, we’ll find ourselves closer to 250,” he says. “At these numbers, our global presence will be reduced such that we’ll only be able to visit some areas of the world episodically.”

If the SSBN(X) project is completed as planned, in 2040 U.S. Navy submarines could deploy more than 900 nuclear warheads. It is not at all clear why. A rationale for this military capability has not been presented to Congress. Nor did President Obama explain how this force fits with the April 2010 Nuclear Posture Review plan to take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons “by reducing the number of nuclear weapons and their role in U.S. national security strategy.”

As for the other legs of the nuclear triad, contracts are beginning to flow to support plans for a new class of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and a new strategic nuclear bomber. The Minuteman III missile — of which the United States has 450 — is about to complete a $7 billion upgrade to extend its service life to 2030. Still, the Air Force wants a new missile fleet, which could cost up to $50 billion.

Wait, there’s more…….

December 21, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized

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