{"id":25177,"date":"2017-10-12T14:49:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T14:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/10\/12\/pentagon-has-no-plans-to-boost-size-of-nuclear-arsenal\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:36:43","slug":"pentagon-has-no-plans-to-boost-size-of-nuclear-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2017\/10\/12\/pentagon-has-no-plans-to-boost-size-of-nuclear-arsenal\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon has no plans to boost size of nuclear arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Pentagon has no current plans to increase the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In fact, it can barely sustain the existing force, which is decades old and is in some respects almost decrepit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arsenal is far from being in the \u201cperfect shape\u201d that President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants to see under his watch. That is why the government is planning to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a top-to-bottom \u201cmodernization,\u201d or replacement of the three major categories of nuclear weapons \u2014 as well as their command and control systems \u2014 in coming decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those new weapons would replace, not add to, currently deployed forces such as the 400 Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles that stand ready for short-notice launch in underground silos in North Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump was asked during an Oval Office photo shoot whether he sought a big increase in the size of the nuclear force, as NBC News reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I never discussed increasing it,\u201d he said. \u201cI want it in perfect shape.\u201d He suggested he thinks the U.S. already has enough weapons. \u201cWe don\u2019t need an increase, but I want modernization and I want total rehabilitation,\u201d he said, apparently referring to replacing weapons and support systems that have grown old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to have absolutely perfectly maintained \u2014 which we are in the process of doing \u2014 nuclear force,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when they said I want 10 times what we have right now, it\u2019s totally unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An in-depth review of the U.S. nuclear force and the strategies and polices that underpin it has been under way since April. The study, ordered by Trump and known as a nuclear \u201cposture\u201d review, is unlikely to be completed and made public before the end of the year, but it already is steering away from any major buildup in the size of the arsenal, officials familiar with the discussions say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the focus is on maintaining the basic shape of a modernization plan Trump inherited from President Barack Obama, with possible adjustments, and on ways to reverse a long decline in the Energy Department\u2019s ability to build and sustain nuclear warheads, according to several officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.<\/p>\n\n\n\t