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The U.S. Nuclear Triad: GAO's Evaluation of the Strategic Modernization Program

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date June 10, 1993
Report No. T-PEMD-93-5
Subject
Summary:

Evidence from eight classified GAO reports assessing weapon system upgrades suggests that the sea leg is the strongest, most cost-effective component of the U.S. strategic triad. In the case of the air leg, strategic bombers add a critically important stabilizing character to the overall nuclear force, both because they are recallable--unlike missiles--and because they are virtually incapable of making a surprise attack. Yet the secret Pentagon studies used to justify the principal weapon system upgrades of the 1970s and 1980s reveal a disturbing lack of hard data on whether the proposed systems were justified in terms of the threat they faced, their performance compared with other systems, and their relative costs.

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