Trump wants more nukes.

[ZenOps]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/trump-wanted-dramatic-increase-nuclear-arsenal-meeting-military-leaders-n809701

10x more nukealicious power. Calling it like a boss.

Controversial NBC article. possible fake news. Seems that Trump wants more nukes. Maybe more of the old style "city killers" instead of "continent killers" or inotherwords absolute minimum critical mass bomblets (which still can take down cities fairly easily) maybe clustered in groups of 8 or 32 inside a single ICBM (as a guess)

[sexualbanana]

He's an idiot, but sometimes I chalk up stories like this (along with the story of him asking why they can't just nuke NK) to the fact that he was completely unqualified for the position in the first place, and now has to play catch up on matters he had absolutely no knowledge of to start - like a medical student who didn't take high school biology.

[rage2]

He's an idiot, but sometimes I chalk up stories like this (along with the story of him asking why they can't just nuke NK) to the fact that he was completely unqualified for the position in the first place, and now has to play catch up on matters he had absolutely no knowledge of to start - like a medical student who didn't take high school biology.
Or it's fake news. NBC is the only network to carry this story, and Trump has denied this and pretty pissed at NBC right now.

[sabad66]

“According to 3 officials in the room” is what the article says

Yes nbc is certainly left-biased, but would they really outright lie about hearing it from 3 separate people? Maybe, but I doubt it

Also, it makes sense that a statement like that would trigger a reaction of Rex calling him a moron. Or is that fake news too?

[Tik-Tok]

“According to 3 officials in the room” is what the article says

Yes nbc is certainly left-biased, but would they really outright lie about hearing it from 3 separate people? Maybe, but I doubt it

Also, it makes sense that a statement like that would trigger a reaction of Rex calling him a moron. Or is that fake news too?

Planted fake news by his officials maybe?

[Antonito]

What's more likely?

In the middle of a few weeks where Trump is publicly feuding with North Korea, Puerto Rico, the NFL and the NBA, some reporters decided to just make up something that rates maaaaybe a 5/10 as far as ridiculous shit says in public on a weekly basis?

Or

While in a meeting Trump looked at a chart, pointed at the highest number with the same childlike wonder that he has for semi-trucks, and said 'let's go back to that number!'?

The fact that he's calling this fake news is pretty solid evidence that it's actually true

[Gman.45]

He and Mattis and others have stated frequently that they don't necessarily want MORE nuclear weapons, they just want to modernize the current arsenal. Compared to recent Chinese and especially Russian innovations in their mobile missiles, and especially their warhead/countermeasures for defeating ABM defenses, the USA is WAY behind the curve right now in terms of deterrence.

The fixed silo missiles are getting very old, as well as their operators have had numerous scandals in terms of capability recently, the Navy's SSBN fleet is also getting long in the tooth. The Air Force - retired one of the primary weapons used on the B52 not that long ago and it's waiting for the new LRSO nuclear cruise missile, and is no longer certified to drop gravity nuclear bombs due to survivability issues. The B1B by treaty is non nuclear capable, which leaves pretty much the 20 B2 bombers and B61/83 gravity bombs, and the conventional fleet of aircraft. The F35 will eventually be nuclear capable but again using the B61 bombs, which puts them right over the target area, or close enough, with no standoff capability. Also a couple decades ago the USA removed all tactical nuclear weapons from their carriers, SSN attack subs, and conventional surface ships like their Burke and Ticonderoga class ships.

In other words, the potential threats out there are out in front in terms of new tech in nuclear weapons and their delivery, their survivability, and the deploy-ability. All not good for maintaining a credible deterrent.

So, talking about upgrading the current nuclear arsenal isn't some "loony tunes'" idea crazy Trump has come up with out of the blue. Left wing news services claiming Trump wanted a "ten fold increase" - that's absolutely ridiculous, that would take years if not decades to manufacture just the weapons grade material, let alone the warheads and the delivery systems alone. The USA has about 7000 warheads, of which about 2500 are waiting either deactivation or have been stockpiled, there is right around 4000 deliverable warheads in the current arsenal, with approx 240 per SSBN submarine, and since the USAF removed the MIRV multi warhead systems from their Minutemen missiles, there is only 500 warheads in the missile fields. Compared to the potential threat systems out there, this isn't very great for deterring them much longer. Balance and equality are needed, or else trouble starts happening, and not just politically. However 45,000 warheads is ridiculous, not even Trump is that stupid.

[sabad66]

Modernizing the arsenal is a good idea that even dems are onboard with. It was started long before trump took office and of course will continue... even Bernie would have pushed for it if he was pres

[suntan]

Obama spent billions on modernization.

Nukes are basically the only thing that keeps world war from breaking out.