The general in charge of America's nukes says North Korea tests weapons faster than the US does
"If you've been in the acquisition business at all over the last 20 years, you realize we already have a broken program. We just don't know where," Air Force Gen. John Hyten said at a recent conference, according to National Defense Magazine. "Because nothing in the acquisition business ever delivers exactly on time [and] exactly on budget anymore."
The Pentagon faces a major feat of recapitalization in the upcoming years where each leg of the US's nuclear triad will need updating. Analysts predict that the programs will total $1 trillion in costs and continue through the 2030s, in part due to a bloated acquisition system.
Hyten said that between 1959 and 1964 the US spent $17 billion in today's dollars on putting 800 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles around the country. Today, the plan is to spend $84 billion on 400 missiles that won't come online until 2035.
At one point, Hyten railed against the overly cautious, slow approach the US takes to nuclear modernization, saying that the US takes too long because they expect every test to work.
Thomson Reuters
"Look at Kim Jong Un," said Hyten. "What he's doing is testing and failing, testing and failing, testing and failing, testing and succeeding. … He's learned how to go fast."
While the US has the world's best nuclear arsenal, and North Korea has the worst, the Kim regime has put forth an impressively quick schedule of testing. Throughout April and May, North Korea tested a new missile nearly every week.
"This is the United States of America. We have the greatest minds, the best and brightest," Hyten said. The Pentagon just needs to "get back to the basics."
Read the full article at National Defense Magazine here.
- 10 Ultimate road trip routes in India for 2024
- Global stocks rally even as Sensex, Nifty fall sharply on Friday
- In second consecutive week of decline, forex kitty drops $2.28 bn to $640.33 bn
- SBI Life Q4 profit rises 4% to ₹811 crore
- IMD predicts severe heatwave conditions over East, South Peninsular India for next five days
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market