How Trump’s “Rescue The Republic” Team Can Bring The Empire Home, Part 2

There is no nation on earth that has anything close to the First Strike force that would be needed to totally overwhelm America’s triad nuclear deterrent, and thereby avoid a retaliatory annihilation of its own country and people if it attempted to strike first. After all, the US has 3,700 active nuclear warheads, of which about 1,770 are operational at any point in time. In turn, these are spread under the sea, in hardened land-based silos and among a bomber fleet of 66 B-2s and B-52s—all beyond the detection or reach of any other nuclear power.

For instance, the Ohio class nuclear submarines each have 20 missile tubes, with each missile carrying an average of four-to-five warheads. That’s 90 independently targetable warheads per boat. At any given time 12 of the 14 Ohio class nuclear subs are actively deployed, and spread around the oceans of the planet within a firing range of 4,000 miles.

So at the point of attack that’s 1,080 deep-sea nuclear warheads cruising along the ocean bottoms to identify, locate and neutralize before any would be blackmailer even gets started. Indeed, with respect to the “Where’s Waldo?” aspect of it, the sea-based nuclear force alone is a powerful guarantor of America’s homeland security.

And then there are the roughly 300 nukes aboard the 66 strategic bombers, which also are not sitting on a single airfield Pearl Harbor style waiting to be obliterated, but are constantly rotating in the air and on the move. Likewise, the 400 Minutemen III missiles are spread out in extremely hardened silos deep underground across a broad swath of the upper mid-west. Each missile currently carries one nuclear warhead in compliance with the Start Treaty, which would also need to be taken out by would be blackmailers.

In short, there is no way, shape or form that America’s nuclear deterrent can be neutralized by a blackmailer. And the best thing is that according to the most recent CBO estimates the nuclear triad will cost only about $75 billion per year to maintain over the next decade, including allowances for periodic weapons upgrades.

As shown below, therefore, the heart of America’s military security requires barely 7% of today’s massive military budget. Indeed, the key component of the nuclear deterrent—sea-based ballistic missiles—is estimated to cost just $188 billion over the next decade, or just 1.9% of the $10 trillion national defense baseline.

Stated differently, if you allow an ample $375 billion per year for a Fortress America continental defense (see below) and $75 billion per year for the triad strategic deterrent per the table below, the resulting $450 billion is exactly half of the current defense budget.

So the question recurs. Where does all the rest—$450 billion—go?

10-Year Cost Of US Strategic Nuclear Deterrent Per CBO Estimates, 2023 to 2032

The short answer to the above question is that upwards of $450 billion of the current US defense budget is predicated on a world that no longer exists. Fully one-third of a century after the Cold War ended and the Soviet Empire was swept into the dustbin of history and China went the Red Capitalist route of deep global economic integration, Washington still deploys 173,000 troops abroad and maintains upwards of 750 bases in 80 countries.