The U.S. Military s New ICBM Could Be Ready Sooner Than Expected
How could it be early, given the complexity of engineering a weapons systems of this importance which, according to service developers, needs to be built for growth with technical standards allowing for continued upgrades as threats change? Here s how.
Could the Air Force’s new Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) arrive as soon as 2026? Several years earlier than may have previously been projected? Maybe, according to an Air Force report citing senior service weapons developers emphasizing the need for the emerging Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) ICBM.
The Northrop Grumman program, now under contract and on track, had been slated to appear on the operational scene by the end of the decade, but now it may arrive earlier.
The decision to retain a low-yield warhead that was outfitted on submarine-launched ballistic missiles in 2019, and to initiate research into a new sea-launched cruise missile, has sparked an outcry.
why the missile caucus is so influential is: money
Meet the Senate nuke caucus, busting the budget and making the world less safe, https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/05/26/meet-the-senate-nuke-caucus-busting-the-budget-and-making-the-world-less-safe/
These lawmakers represent states with a direct interest in pouring billions into modernizing and building new weapons.
Democrats might control the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government right now, but a small Republican-dominated Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Coalition exercises outsized influence in a frightening campaign for nuclear rearmament.
The coalition, comprising six senators from states that house, develop, or test underground land-based nuclear weapons, is pushing a wasteful and dangerous $1.7 trillion, decades-long plan to produce new nuclear weapons, some with warheads 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
DepSecDef Hicks called the president’s $715 billion spending request “a foundation for fielding a full range of needed capabilities.” Republicans called.