Over the next decade, operating, maintaining, and modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal will cost the United States nearly a trillion dollars. That's about $95 billion a year – more than is spent on many federal agencies. This is reported by Axios, writes UNN.
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This impressive estimate by the Congressional Budget Office is a great opportunity for critics who argue that Washington is spending money blindly or that parts of the triad are rudimentary.
In a few tumultuous days for the world watching nuclear weapons - including clashes between India and Pakistan and statements by the U.S. Air Force about the need for new mines for its already over-budget Sentinel missiles - the dollar figures are staggering.
The huge costs outlined in this report were not foreseen at the start of the nuclear weapons modernization program. There will be no return to the "heroic mode of production" of nuclear weapons. Even if Congress spent another $100 or $200 billion on nuclear weapons, the system that produces them would not "take on the task" for years, if at all.
Nuclear procurement programs account for nearly 12% of the Department of Defense's planned procurement spending over the next decade. This means that the Department of Defense will have to make "tough choices about which programs to continue."
Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball said in an article this month that the "rapid rise" in prices is diverting resources from "other, more pressing human needs and national security priorities."
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Iran has put forward the idea of creating an international nuclear consortium involving Arab countries in the region and American investment as an alternative to the U.S. demand to completely curtail the nuclear program.