They could be and likely would be but I'm not sure if that should really be the goal. If you "push the button" it's going to be a bad day. If anything, dirty warheads lend more gravity to the decision. It's part of the idea behind New START banning MIRVs*: the nature of MIRVs made that portion of the triad highly concentrated (lose 100 missiles to a strike and you've lost 400-1200 warheads) and thus the incentive in a heated situation was to push the button first. Limiting ICBMs to one warhead distributes the inventory of warheads thus making it less likely to lose a whole portion of one's triad in one strike thus making one less inclined to strike first.

*MIRVs are still allowed for land based ICBMs so long as the other re-entry vehicles are decoys. It was basically a gentlemen's agreement saying "hey this practice could turn MAD on its head in a bad way, let's both avoid doing that" and both parties saw the logic and agreed. MIRVs are still allowed, and used on, SLBMs as they are considered relatively invulnerable to a first-strike.

But, our ICBMs are ancient and our sub force is getting very old as well. If we want to retain a credible deterrent force, at some point we need new ICBMs and new ballistic missile subs.


I missed this earlier.



Isn't the U.S already going through a $1 trillion (over 30 years) modernization of submarines, bombers and submarines?

We also need, at some point, to manufacture new warheads.


I mentioned earlier that the U.S had 7,000 warheads but I checked and there are about 4,000 with 2,800 currently inactive and waiting disarmament. I haven't read anywhere that the U.S program is falling apart and everyone says the U.S has by far the best and strongest program, no one else even close.


Most importantly, Trump is sending a bad message. In 2010, the U.S signed a new START treaty with Russia which will limit both countries war heads to 1,550. The point of the treaty was to acknowledge that you don't need 4,000 war heads and you don't have to bankrupt each country to be "safe."


It's madness.