• TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Because we need to replace and maintain the ones we already have. People have been talking about doing this to our aging stockpile for decades.

    It makes sense to reduce our arsenal, but the nukes we do have need to be maintained for safety and reliability.

    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That sounds awfully legit.

      I hate to think that the government is doing exactly what they’ve said they’d do in a sensible timeframe. What is this nation coming to?

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        People on the internet like to pretend that if the US just stopped making weapons then everyone else would also stop making weapons.

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This, lifecycle renewal only goes so far and old plutonium is still very useful for things like breeder reactors.

  • e8d79@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Perun made a quite interesting video about this. Basically the US, after the end of the cold war, stopped pit production and relied on the many pits they still had laying around. Now they are worrying that old pits might become unreliable and unserviceable which could weaken the US’ nuclear deterrence. Because of that the US is seeking to restart pit production.

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Because we’re coming up on cold war 2 : Chinese boogaloo

    Edit: cold war 2: big trouble in little China.

  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    For the Russian takeover. Putin has let his weapons deteriorate so he’s telling his minions here to get prepared for him.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Will it be an escalation of the Russia/Ukraine war? Or will the Israel/Gaza war spill over into the wider region? Or will America try to start some shit over Taiwan? Who knows!

        Clock is ticking, though.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            China doesn’t really do military conflict. They’re not like Russia who has had several military conflicts in just the past few decades; China hasn’t really done anything like that for over 40 years. If they decide to do anything they’ll probably do something that’s partially economic and partially political. If anyone is going to start a war over Taiwan it’s going to be America - they’ve been signaling it pretty hard.

            My guess? China starts restricting trade or infrastructure or energy or something to put pressure on Taiwain, America decides it’s time to liberate them from “the yolk of Chinese tyranny” and introduce some FreedomTM, and then it’s WW3

            • WhatTrees
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              1 year ago

              That’s a pretty wild guess given how China keeps doing military drills involving amphibious landings and flying into Taiwanese airspace/going into Taiwanese waters. You wouldn’t practice amphibious landings to prepare a defense against the US, you’d do that to prepare for an invasion. China talks a lot about not using its military outside its borders, which has been mostly true, but they see Taiwan as within their borders so it doesn’t really tell us much.

              If China wants to limit imports of goods from Taiwan they absolutely could, and it would be difficult for the US/Japan to respond to, but if by “restricting trade” you mean a blockade then that is an act of war that the US/Japan would respond to much more aggressively. Just like China would respond if we blockaded them.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Maybe it would look more like a blockade.

                How come it’s an act of war if China blockades Taiwan, but it’s not an act of war when America does the same thing to countries it sanctions?

                • WhatTrees
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                  1 year ago

                  By definition, a blockade is an act of war, regardless of who does it. I’m not sure why you’d think I wouldn’t call the US blockading some country and act of war (although I have a guess), just as much as I’d call Israel blockading Palestine as an act of war.

                  The reason other countries don’t respond to a US blockade with all-out war is because we get other countries to agree to the blockade first and then do it as a block, which means the blockaded country would have to be prepared to fight the US plus its allies. Given the relative size of the countries’ militaries involved, the blockaded ones usually decide not to fight.

                  Agreeing with the US’s decision to support Taiwan against China is not the same as support for all US military decisions, or even most of them.

  • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Maybe it’s because the other major nuclear power keeps making new nuclear threats every week and just withdrew from a major nuclear proliferation treaty?

  • Jenntron@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We also need to arm all of the new B-21 raiders. I believe I read they’re going to start off with producing 100 of them.