{"id":43173,"date":"2016-02-29T20:31:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2016\/02\/29\/commentary-resist-call-to-eliminate-minuteman-force\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:33:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:33:47","slug":"commentary-resist-call-to-eliminate-minuteman-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2016\/02\/29\/commentary-resist-call-to-eliminate-minuteman-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Resist Call To Eliminate Minuteman Force"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former US Defense Secretary of Defense <\/span>William Perry has called\u00a0for the nuclear land-based force of 450 Minuteman missiles to be eliminated. His reasons for his recommendation <\/span>appear to be two-fold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, that Russia’s current reckless and cavalier attitude about the early use of Russian nuclear weapons might cause an American president in a crisis to launch Minuteman missiles out of fear that Russia might pre-emptively launch a first strike against America’s “vulnerable” missile silos. And second, that modernizing Minuteman would start an arms race with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both rationales are without merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the US\u00a0is not in an arms race with Russia \u2014 a competition Dr. <\/span>Perry fears would be fueled by going forward with the Minuteman. America’s strategic (long-range) forces happen to be limited,\u00a0as are those of Russia,\u00a0by the 2010 New Start Treaty. between the two superpowers. <\/span>Strategic nuclear warheads are capped at 1,550. If anything, Russia is rapidly modernizing, ostensibly within those limits, while the United States is trying \u2014 slowly \u2014 to catch up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time the US\u00a0modernized the Minuteman force was between 1993-2008. Then, under the START I and the Moscow treaties, deployed US\u00a0nuclear weapons were reduced from roughly 12,000 to 2,200. During that entire <\/span>period, Minuteman modernization served a stabilizing role, and was fully compatible with arms control,\u00a0as remains true today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the Minuteman missile force is not in any way <\/span>in danger of being launched or used <\/span>recklessly or inadvertently.\u00a0The nuclear force the US\u00a0now maintains consists of: \u2022\u00a0450 silo-based land-based missiles and their associated launch control centers. \u2022\u00a060 nuclear-capable bombers at three bases. \u2022\u00a014 deployed nuclear submarines each at two additional bases, of which four to six 4-6 <\/span>are at sea at any one time. These make America’s early use of nuclear weapons in a crisis unnecessary. Why? The US\u00a0nuclear force, including a robust ICBM fleet, cannot as a whole be eliminated in a first strike by an adversary without prompting a <\/span>massive US\u00a0retaliation. retaliatory strike in return. <\/span>As noted, there are more than 500 ICBM-related American nuclear targets spread over five extremely large Western states, plus submarines in the vast expanse of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. An adversary would have to eliminate all of these forces in a first strike , all of these forces would have to be eliminated <\/span>simultaneously by an adversary <\/span>to prevent the US\u00a0from being able to launch a devastating response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third point is that if the current Minuteman force were eliminated through obsolescence or attrition, ironically <\/span>the very international instabilities feared by Dr. <\/span>Perry,\u00a0such as a Russian leader using nuclear weapons in a crisis,\u00a0would emerge in a dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if that is true, it seems that the United States, without a Minuteman force, would make it easy \u2014 in fact tempting \u2014 for an adversary such as Russia to take out the entire US\u00a0strategic nuclear force in one or a series of very limited, even surreptitious, <\/span>first strikes.?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Secretary <\/span>Perry’s proposal, the US\u00a0“target set” of nuclear submarines and bombers would consist of five military bases: three for bombers and two for submarines, and a handful of submarines at sea. That is it:\u00a0from over 500 targets today\u00a0to fewer than 10 in the future. It would be as if the US nited States<\/span> painted a bulls-eye on its nuclear forces and told our enemies, “Come and get us.” The impact on strategic stability would be obvious.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, <\/span>From the perspective of maintaining deterrence, strategic stability, the ability to be effective during a crisis\u00a0and using defense dollars wisely, the Minuteman force is an extraordinary asset, a required modernization\u00a0and critical to the <\/span>security. of our country and allies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To sum up, <\/span>Perry\u2019s recommendation on land-based missiles is dangerous, wrong-headed and will lead to the very destabilizing relations with Russia he is hoping to avert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Huessy <\/strong>is president of his own defense consulting firm, GeoStrategic Analysis, a\u00a0founded in 1981,<\/span>and was the\u00a0senior defense consultant at the National Defense University Foundation for 22 years. He is a\u00a0<\/span>national security fellow at the American Foreign Policy Institute AFPC, <\/span>and senior defense consultant at the Air Force Association.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former US Defense Secretary William Perry has called elimination of the nuclear land-based force of 450 Minuteman missiles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":66,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,33,17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1960],"class_list":["post-43173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-home","category-opinion"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"672BGOMCE5EJZEWHAB66CNDYCM","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2016\/02\/29\/commentary-resist-call-to-eliminate-minuteman-force\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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