EYE ON THE BALL

Pentagon: Nuclear Force Needs Billions

To fix neglected system.

On Friday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced an overhaul of America’s aging nuclear arsenal and said that billions of dollars are needed over the next five years to ensure the security and effectiveness of the neglected system. “We have just kind of taken our eye off the ball here…[but] there’s nothing here we can’t fix,” Hagel said. “As long as we have nuclear weapons, we must ensure that they are safe, secure, and effective.” Hagel said systematic problems had been found that revealed a “lack of sustained focus, attention, and resources” on a force that is “understaffed, under-resourced, and reliant on an aging and fragile supporting infrastructure in an over-inspected and overly risk-averse environment.” He gave the example of a situation in which a wrench that was needed to attach warheads to missiles had to be sent by FedEx from one base to another.