In the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress should support modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and reject funding for implementing treaties that provide no strategic benefit for the United States, the conservative Heritage Foundation said in a policy paper this week.
“U.S. nuclear weapons and delivery systems are aging and in need of investment. If they are not modernized, the U.S. will soon have inadequate nuclear weapons infrastructure and inadequate nuclear delivery platforms,” according to the document prepared by 17 Heritage staffers. “Further delays increase the overall costs of the programs and leave the U.S. less capable of responding to unexpected developments in the nuclear programs of other nations.”
The paper offers an extended list of recommendations aimed at strengthening the U.S. military through the congressional document that sets Pentagon funding allowances and policy. For the U.S. nuclear deterrent, Heritage called for withholding funding for unilateral stockpile reductions or accords “that put the U.S. at a disadvantage and that do not benefit U.S. national security—agreements such as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which Russia is violating.”
Given increased tensions with Russia, the Defense Department should also reassess the position of its nuclear posture that the United States and Russia are no longer foes, Heritage said. It further urged approval of very limited nuclear yield-producing experiments to aid the science of the nuclear arms program and to press a “protect-and-defend” strategic posture that would provide a devastating response to adversaries that strike against the United States or its allies.
