US STRATCOM boss Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton said there are positive side effects to rehabilitating the nuclear warhead arsenal. (See above) He proposes making the warheads physically larger than those now in the inventory and of such a design that they would be doubly hard for a terrorist to steal and, if stolen, wouldn’t work. Also, if the US fails to maintain the credibility of its nuclear forces, those under the US nuclear umbrella who have never built their own such weapons, such as Japan, might feel compelled to do so. Rebuilding a warhead-making capability thus discourages proliferation, Chilton asserted during AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.