Don’t Make a Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile a Priority

In recent months, intensifying conflict around the world has called new attention to the possibility of military confrontation between nuclear-armed states. To meet these challenges, the United States is engaged in a substantial modernization of its own nuclear capabilities, including a new nuclear-armed cruise missile for its submarine force, commonly referred to as “SLCM-N,” or sea-launched cruise missile–nuclear. For several years, American strategists have debated the wisdom of this weapon. Critics argue that the missile poses steep opportunity costs, both in terms of the industrial resources necessary to build the weapon and in the scarce operational assets on which it

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