Inside Washington’s $1T ‘Nuclear Triad’ as Trump | Political News

President Donald Trump prompt that the U.S. will restart its testing of nuclear weapons on Thursday before he meets with China’s Xi Jinping.

“I’ve instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal foundation. That course of will start immediately,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account and noted other countries testing weapons.

“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other nation. This was completed, including a full update and renovation of present weapons, during my First Term in workplace. Because of the large harmful energy, I HATED to do it, but had no alternative! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but can be even within 5 years,” Trump wrote.

America’s Nuclear Triad

America’s nuclear arsenal comprises thousands of nuclear weapons and three methods of delivery, collectively called “the triad.” Missiles can be launched from the air via strategic bombers carrying gravity bombs or cruise missiles, from the sea by submarines holding ballistic missiles, or from underground silos housing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The nuclear triad is currently being modernized at an estimated cost of $946 billion from 2025-2034, or about $94 billion every year.

The U.S. has stated it must maintain the triad in order to support the policy of deterrence — the credible threat of retaliation if it or an ally is attacked. The argument is that the triad enables a second-strike capability.

How many nuclear warheads does the U.S. have?

U.S. at the moment has a stockpile of 5,117 nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Of these, more than 1,000 are retired stock and more than 4,000 stockpiled warheads, including reserved and deployed warheads.

Air

There are two different nuclear weapons systems delivered by airplane: nuclear air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) — guided and extremely correct — and gravity bombs, which require a airplane to deploy them close to a desired goal.

B-52 bombers carry nuclear-tipped ALCMs and B-2 stealth bombers have gravity bomb capabilities.

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Sea

The sea half of the triad at the moment consists of 14 Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), succesful of firing ballistic missiles from submerged positions to hit an meant goal. Currently, SSBNs can launch up to 20 nuclear-capable ballistic missiles with a number of warheads per missile.

The Ohio-class SSBNs can be changed by the Columbia-class SSBN in the early 2030s and embody 12 scheduled submarines slotted for manufacturing.

Land

The land-based leg of the triad consists of 400 deployed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), housed in underground silos in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, but silos stretch into Colorado and Nebraska as properly. Each ICBM carries one warhead but can maintain two or three warheads each and stay on immediate alert, that means they are often launched within minutes.