France24, Dec. 23, 2016 – US President-elect Donald Trump called Thursday for the US to expand its nuclear capabilities until the world “comes to its senses”, hours after President Vladimir Putin said Russia needed to increase its own nuclear potential.
“The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,” Trump said in a post on Twitter.
Trump’s call signaled that he may support costly efforts to modernize the aging US nuclear arsenal. During the next decade, US ballistic missile submarines, bombers, and land-based missiles – the three components of the US nuclear triad – are expected to reach the end of their useful lives.
A report by the Government Accountability Office earlier this year cited several worryingly outdated “legacy systems” that are still in use across the US government that are in desperate need of upgrading.
A Pentagon command-and-control system that “coordinates the operational functions of the United States’ nuclear forces, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers, and tanker support aircraft” runs on an IBM Series/1 computer and uses 8-inch floppy disks, the report said.
Maintaining and modernizing the arsenal is expected to cost about $1 trillion over 30 years, according to independent estimates.
Trump, who is at his Florida resort for the Christmas holiday, gave no details about what prompted his tweet. Representatives for his transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.