President Joe Biden is overseeing cuts to America’s $ 1.2 trillion nuclear renewal program and could reverse the Trump administration’s efforts to develop a new warhead, sources have said.
According to CNN, two movement officers and an outside adviser to the incoming administration have said Biden is instead placing more emphasis on arms control.
The incoming leader in major plans is reassessing the more than $ 1 trillion nuclear renewal program and determining whether it deserves the first major introduction, the three sources said to the news agency.
According to experts, the issue is partly due to finances, with the program taking up a large portion of the Pentagon’s budget that could be allocated to conventional and non-conventional weapons. growing fair.
It was reported last week by the Wall Street Journal that Biden was looking to trim funding for nuclear weapons.
Sources have said that President Joe Biden is overseeing cuts to America’s $ 1.2 trillion nuclear renewal program and could reverse the Trump administration’s efforts to develop a new warhead.
Any major cuts in the programme’s budget are likely to frighten slower Republicans and some Democrats who believe the expansion of the U.S. nuclear program is critical to national security.
The issue is particularly relevant because a Cold War-era nuclear deal with Moscow expires just 16 days after Biden took office on January 20th.
Many experts believe the renewal program has blossomed under President Donald Trump, CNN reports, and instead needs a steady increase in total arms spending in the coming decades.
Instead the incoming Biden administration hopes to renew nuclear talks with Russia and other world powers in an effort to advance arms control, CNN reported.
While Biden is working to appoint a major arms control, which will have to go through a lengthy testing process, he is expected to get approval for a short-term extension of the arms deal with Moscow called START .
After this, he would then go to Russia for talks on a longer-term agreement, according to a CNN source, who described it as an ‘important issue’ for the President-Elect.
Many experts believe the renewal program has blossomed under President Donald Trump (pictured), CNN reports, and instead needs a steady increase in total military spending in the coming decades.
Biden has been a candidate for non-proliferation, and wrote in an article in March 2020 that he would follow a new START treaty with Russia and ‘use that as the basis for new arms control arrangements. ‘
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Trump administration aimed to spend nearly $ 500 billion – accounting for the changes in inflation – on the focus and renewal of its nuclear arsenal in the next decade.
This represents an increase of $ 100 billion – or about 23 percent – from what it was expected to cost at the end of the Obama administration in 2017.
Experts have estimated that the cost of a nuclear upgrade could rise by about $ 1 trillion over 30 years, based on current consumption levels.
A revision of America’s nuclear arsenal has been going on for half a decade, and began under the Obama administration, which made efforts to use the planes, submarines, and missiles to launch nuclear weapons. floating.
Trump argued when he took office that a strong strategy for developing the new U.S. nuclear triad – air, land and sea delivery systems – was late – and began efforts to establish a new interregional ballistic missile. developed land, as well as a newly established sea of arms.
The current president has re-signed his three-year-old New START agreement designed to reduce the risk of a war between Russia and the West.
START is expected to expire on February 5, 2021, and although the Trump administration tried to revive the treaty in the weeks leading up to the election, talks halted due to failed attempts to bring China to the forefront. negotiation board.
In late October, the U.S. Air Force launched unarmed interregional ballistic missiles from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California – part of a series of tests.
The Minuteman III ICBM was equipped with a reentry test vehicle and was launched at 12.27 am on October 29, according to an Air Force press release. Pictured: Minuteman III missiles were successfully launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California (Image: Michael Stonecypher)
The Minuteman III ICBM was equipped with a reentry test vehicle and was launched at 12.27 am on October 29, according to an Air Force press release at the time.
Officials confirmed that the trial was planned well in advance and was not a response to routine incidents.
The ICBM reentry vehicle traveled 4,200 miles to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, at a speed of 15,000mph. One Minuteman III costs $ 7 million.
The Minuteman III comprises a land-based ICBM of the country’s nuclear triad, along with ballistic missiles (SLBMs) launched by the Trident submarine and nuclear weapons carried by long-range strategic bombers -time.
Although progress has been made in reducing the nuclear arsenals of the Cold War, the world’s total nuclear investment remains at a relatively high level – although this number is also declining steadily.
About 91 percent of nuclear warheads belong to Russia or the U.S., and there are about 4,000 warheads in each.
While the US, Russia and the UK are all reducing their number of nuclear warheads – and France and Israel have relatively stable numbers – China, Pakistan, India and North Korea all increasing the number of warheads in their arsenals.