TM-61 Matador Cruise Missile at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque, NM. Image: Smriti Keshari

Cutting Costs, Reducing Risk

America’s nuclear spending spree has sparked a dangerous new arms race. Over the next 30 years, the United States plans to spend $1 trillion on new nuclear weapons based on submarines, bombers and missiles. This plan increases the risk that Russia and China will follow suit, and that nuclear weapons could wind up in terrorist hands. It also sends the mistaken message to the rest of the world that these weapons are useful. Ploughshares Fund is determined to end the new nuclear arms race before it’s too late. This month, Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Lawrence Korb at the Center for American Progress published two reports funded by Ploughshares that examine the hard budget choices ahead due to out of control nuclear spending. Korb recommends cuts to nuclear weapons programs that will save taxpayers billions of dollars. One of these programs is the new nuclear cruise missile, the topic of a forthcoming report by Ploughshares Fund Hale Fellow Will Saetren. The momentum to end wasteful nuclear spending is growing, and our grantees and partners are in the lead.