Islam Times - A cut in US nuke funds will slash deficit: Report

Islam Times - A major US daily says Washington can help reduce the nation’s skyrocketing deficit by slashing funds planned for developing, maintaining and operating nuclear weapons over the next 10 years.

Citing a new Rand Corporation study that calls for an end to a Cold War thinking in US military planning, Washington Post daily said in a Tuesday article that the US administration can save up to USD 100 billion over the next ten years by cutting the budget for building, upgrading and maintaining its nuclear arms.

Describing nuclear warheads as “terror weapons used more for political and diplomatic prestige,” the report pointed to official figures showing that the United States possesses the largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

As part of his negotiations with rival Republican lawmakers to win support for signing the April 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, US President Barack Obama agreed “to spend up to USD 200 billion to modernize the nuclear weapons manufacturing complex and build a new generation of strategic submarines, bombers and ICBMs that would last at least another 30 years,” the report added.

“To cut nuclear weapons in the short run,” the report said, “he had to promise to be able to build more in the future. That also requires spending more than USD 150 billion over 10 years to operate and maintain them.”

The US State Department reportedly declared the American nuclear arsenal on September 1 as having 1,722 deployed warheads, 806 deployed ground- and sub-launched ICBMs and strategic bombers, and 228 non-deployed delivery systems.

The Russians, according to the report, had “far fewer” nuclear armaments: 1,499 deployed warheads, 491 deployed delivery systems and 393 non-deployed delivery systems.

The daily further cited the Rand Corporation report as saying that “Russia is less and less a factor in the choice and pursuit of US defense strategy or in US defense spending.”

Rand Corporation is one of the most prominent strategic think tanks in the US that is primarily sponsored by the American Government. Many of its experts have worked for Washington as top advisors and officials.

Meanwhile, the report noted that “China has only 50 ICBMs that can reach the United States; most of its 250 or so nuclear-armed missiles are shorter-range.”

Apart from China and Russia, according to the nonprofit Arms Control Association, “no other nuclear-armed country has the ability to deliver nuclear weapons on ballistic missiles that can reach the United States.”

“So why do we need 1,000 or more warheads,” the daily asked. “Why have three types of delivery systems - the triad of subs, bombers and land-based missiles - that all need to be modernized? Originally, the triad was meant to deter a first strike by the Soviets - an attack that we now know they never contemplated and never could have executed.”

Cold War thinking, the report concluded, is the "only justification" for the huge size of the US nuclear arsenal.