No More Nuclear-Tipped Cruise Missiles

Sometime in the next few months, the Defense Department is expected to decide whether the nation needs a new nuclear-armed cruise missile. This decision is worth about $30 billion, and is a key test of whether U.S. military planners have finally moved beyond Cold War thinking.

The cruise missile decision comes as the Pentagon is seeking to modernize all three legs of the nuclear triad -- submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles and long-range bombers -- and the nuclear warheads they carry. All told, these programs could add up to $300 billion over the next few decades, just as the defense budget is taking a nosedive.

Cracks in the nuclear budget are already showing. In September, the Navy went hat-in-hand to Congress seeking extra money for its $100 billion program to build 12 new nuclear-armed submarines. Without extra funds, the Navy said it would have to forgo 32 conventional ships it also wants to buy.

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