The Department of Defense plans to modernize all three legs (strategic bombers, ICBMs, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles) of the nuclear arsenal at once, while modernizing conventional forces as well. "Many weapons programs will be at or near their peak years of funding requirements at roughly the same time in the 2020s, creating a modernization bow wave. Just as a large bow wave slows a ship by diverting its energy, carrying a large modernization bow wave is a drag on defense because it leads to program instability and inefficient procurement practices that weaken the buying power of defense dollars."

Inefficiently spending a trillion dollars over 30 years on weapons that are outdated, overpriced and unnecessary is a bad idea. Read the full report, Defense Modernization Plans Through the 2020s: Addressing the Bow Wave [1] by Todd Harrison, Jan, 27, 2016. We're proud to support strategic insights and bipartisan policy solutions from Center for Strategic & International Studies [2].