Why America Must Modernize Its Nuclear Bombers, Submarines, and Missiles

Constance Baroudos

Security,

American leaders must fund the modernization of the aging nuclear triad to continue protecting the U.S. and allies.

One of the biggest budget challenges the next presidential administration will face is how to fund the modernization of the strategic deterrent of bombers, submarines, and land-based missiles. While this “triad” protects the American homeland from nuclear attack and blackmail, it also prevents nuclear proliferation through extended deterrence because countries do not need to develop their own nuclear arsenals for protection. U.S. leaders must fund the modernization of the aging nuclear triad to continue protecting the U.S. homeland and allies.

The nuclear threat no longer focuses on two states, the U.S. and Russia, as during the Cold War. Nuclear material, technology and weapons have spread to the Indian subcontinent, the Korean Peninsula, and the Middle East. As a result, we live in a more complex and volatile world than in the past. Regional conflicts and threats from nuclear-armed states have increased along with potential attacks from terrorist groups with nuclear weapons.

The fact that one nuclear weapon can cause devastating damage leads some to think a large arsenal is unnecessary, but this is not so. Today Washington must tailor deterrence to discourage violence from multiple states and non-state actors. America must also have enough weapons to protect allies as promised. To address these challenges, America’s strategic nuclear triad is used every second of each day to provide deterrence from a nuclear assault or threat. A potential attacker would have more to lose than gain from attacking the U.S. because it has the capability to respond with devastating nuclear retaliation.