Nuclear experts not impresssed with Trump’s boasts about USA nuclear weaponry

Trump says the US nuclear arsenal is now ‘tippy top’ thanks to him, but nuke experts say he’s out of touch with reality, Business Insider RYAN PICKRELL, OCT 10, 2020,

President Donald Trump said Friday that the US nuclear arsenal is now “tippy top” thanks to him.
Nuclear weapons experts said that the only substantial change to the nuclear arsenal was the introduction of the low-yield W76-2.
Other efforts to modernise the ageing US nuclear triad began during the Obama administration and have continued to receive funding under Trump, but it will still be some time before the US military starts to see some of the new systems in the works.

President Donald Trump boasted Friday that the US nuclear arsenal is “tippy top” thanks to him, but nuclear weapons experts told Insider that the arsenal hasn’t changed much during his presidency.

Trump told conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh that “our nuclear is all tippy top now,” adding that China and Russia dream of the weapons the US military has. Trump regularly boasts about US military strength, sometimes with somewhat nonsensical phrases such as “super-duper missile.”

Trump has repeatedly called for a stronger nuclear force both before and during his presidency.

At a campaign rally in 2016, Trump enviously praised Russia’s military while expressing concerns about the US. “Putin has built up their military again and again and again,” he said. “Their military is much stronger. He’s doing nuclear, we’re not doing anything. Our nuclear is old and tired and his nuclear is tippy top from what I hear.”………

The US military has been working to modernise the ageing nuclear triad, but that work began before Trump took office. …….

“Boastful, detached from reality rhetoric from Trump about weapons systems is commonplace,” Kingston Reif, a disarmament expert, told Insider after Trump’s “tippy top” remarks.

“But, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Trump has proposed a significant expansion of the role and capability of the US nuclear arsenal,” he added. “Though much of the proposed expansion is still in the early stages, it is unnecessary, poses a crushing affordability challenge, and would increase nuclear risks â€” especially when coupled with the administration’s trampling of arms control.”

Vipin Narang, a security studies expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Insider that the Trump’s approach to nuclear policy and arms control has put US security in jeopardy.

“The administration added the W76-2, but took away the [Iran nuclear deal], [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty], and is now threatening to rip up New START so, on balance, has probably made us less safe in the nuclear domain,” Narang said, pointing to international agreements that Trump has ended or threatened during his time in office. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-says-he-made-nuclear-arsenal-tippy-top-experts-disagree-2020-10?r=US&IR=T

October 12, 2020 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized

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