90
this is sort of a wild article to come from Stars and Stripes, unless the goal is to prompt a major increase in defense spending for "readiness".
The report cited is from JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security of America) which is a neocon Zionist think tank. That's their entire game, making reports that Israel isn't getting enough missiles. That's all they do.
I mean these things aren't mutually exclusive. The intent is almost certainly to get more money diverted to the MIC. However, it's also a fact that the industrial capacity in the US is in a dire state. The US has never taken on peer competitors before, and they're now faced with modern weapons that outperform their own.
At some point just throwing more money at the problem doesn't work anymore. And it looks like the MIC might have passed that point a while ago, though it is hard to say.
It does terrify me a little bit though, they really don't seem to be rational actors, and once it becomes clear they'll lose global hegemony, there's no telling what they might do. I really hope the nuke maintenance is just as corrupt and broken as the rest of the US military.
America has a (estimated) deployed arsenal of c.1700 warheads, so even if 50% of them are fucked and don’t work, that’s still enough for one working warhead for every single Chinese settlement of over 10000 people, with a couple of tens of warheads left over for other targets. Don’t underestimate just how much damage and human tragedy America can still do to the world.
I wasn't, it is still terrifying, even if 99% of their nukes didn't work or got intercepted, the destruction of millions of people is beyond abhorrent. I think a lot of people forget this when they demand China take a more hardline stance against the US and global capital, the Chinese government doesn't want millions of their citizens to die.
That's precisely my worry as well.
I really hope the nuke maintenance is just as corrupt and broken as the rest of the US military
Well, good news on that count: https://hexbear.net/comment/4458601
The aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles that have formed the land-based leg of the nation's nuclear deterrent triad for half a century can no longer be upgraded and require costly replacements
The new missile to be phased in over a decade from the late 2020s are estimated over a fifty-year life cycle to cost around $86 billion.
... Northrop Grumman had won the competition to build the future ICBM. Northrop won by default, as their bid was at the time the only bid left ...
Even if the nukes themselves are fine, they're not doing you much good sitting around in a warehouse - it's delivery systems which are important. Flying over a target and directly dropping them isn't really how most nukes are expected to be delivered anymore (although recent experience with Fordow does indicate that's still somewhat viable with a stealth bomber, but against a country with a much less-developed air defense network than Russia or China - and even still, there's 19 aging B-2s left, and typically expensive equipment like this is never all active at the same time, with some proportion of the fleet being in maintenance at any given moment, so the actual quantities of nukes they could deliver isn't necessarily that much, although of course even one nuke going off is too much).
Flying over a target and directly dropping them isn’t really how most nukes are expected to be delivered anymore
The remarkable speed of the B61-13’s production is a testament to the ingenuity of our scientists and engineers and the urgency we face to fortify deterrence in a volatile new age
ah, the amazing ingenuity of... WW2-era bomb technology? (although it seems like they're also supposed to have guide kits, so they're somewhat more advanced)
Anyway, this seems to be more of a specialized bunker-buster (or more generally a bomb meant for hitting particular hardened bases/facilities and the like, not necessarily fully-underground ones), which is a somewhat different use-case compared to regular nukes - these do need to be gravity bombs as they have to be ridiculously heavy in order to be able to reach the necessary depth of penetration, which makes it not really viable to deliver them by missile.
And it also seems like they'll be a pretty limited production run, and of doubtful utility: https://fas.org/publication/biden-administration-to-build-a-new-nuclear-bomb/
Defense officials explain that the new B61-13 will not result in an increase of the overall number of warheads in the stockpile. The reason is that the administration plans to reduce the number of B61-12s produced by the number of B61-13s produced, so the total number of new bombs will ultimately be the same.
it seems likely that the number of B61-13 bombs to be produced is very limited – perhaps on the order of 50 weapons – and that production will happen at the back end of the B61-12 schedule in 2025.
The military justification for adding the B61-13 to the stockpile is hard to see. Instead, it seems more likely to be a political maneuver to finally get rid of the B83-1. ... The military doesn’t need an additional, more powerful gravity bomb. In fact, Air Force officials privately say the military mission of nuclear gravity bombs is decreasing in importance because of the risk of putting bombers and their pilots in harm’s way over heavily defended targets – particularly as long-range missiles are becoming more capable.
To that end, the military mission of the B61-13 is somewhat of a mystery, especially given that the LRSO will also be arming the bombers and that the United States has thousands of other high-yield weapons in its arsenal. Instead, what appears to have happened is this: after defense hardliners blocked the administration’s plans to retire the B83-1, the administration likely agreed to retain the B61-7 yield in the stockpile in the form of a modern bomb modification (B61-13) that is easier and cheaper to maintain, so that they can finally proceed with the retirement of the B83-1.
I remember this came out after the strings of China and Russia news about new weapons, including potential nuclear delivery systems, and after US ground based ICBM's and their infrastructure were reported to be in shambles with barely even any hope of imrpoving the situation. So this is the best info their military can produce, and even the entire idea was taken from Russia which cheaply upgraded their huge stockpile of even WW-2 era bombs with guide kits and used them with devastating effect in Ukraine.
The sanctions / austerity against the American people for basic goods shall continue until the military budget is larget than Nvidia's bloated ass market cap.
And they still missed a shitton LOL
if they arent lying to get more military industrial complex grift, then they are so fucked if they fight against china
It's actually pretty interesting. The US is a paper tiger. It can't handle a prolonged war against a middle power like Iran. Even though it's supposed to be a super power. We've also found out that most of their heavy weapons aren't even suitable outside of the middle east. They weigh too much and get stuck in mud. (happened in Ukraine). They can attack effectively from the sea and that's it. Every actual general has probably poured over the data from Ukraine, and Iran. I, a casual armchair payer of attention, can see this. The pro's probably have all sorts of plans now. I'm curious how much the US military leadership is shitting their pants right now. The conflict with Iran lasted 12 days. How could they last a month?
Exactly, the US built up a whole mythology around their military might, and this worked great until they made a mistake of actually putting it to the test.
They can attack effectively from the sea and that’s it.
Even that is getting into question by their performance against Yemen and that they didn't even tried against Iran.
We need [email protected] for this
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
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