Facts:
80% of US nuclear warheads are on US Navy submarines. That leaves 20% for ICBMs and bombers. The overall total is about 1500 so 20% of that is 300.
Because of New START treaty restrictions, our ICBMs were de-MIRVed some time ago. It is now one warhead per silo. We also capped 4 of the launch tubes on our submarines and reveal them periodically to satellite imagery for the Russians to see. Those ARE MIRVed 4:1 which is how the warhead count gets to 1200ish.
Bombers strategic payloads are thus pretty slim. So any adding of armaments to them must necessarily be intended for non nuclear conflict — and in the case of B-1 a theater of air defense not wiped out by nukes and capable of attacking the non stealth B-1.
And so . . .not real clear what the point is here, other than to provide jobs in someone’s district.
Fritz Hollings: “Alan Cranston wants to use the B-1 bomber to deliver the nuclear freeze.”
Adding the capability to deliver additional long-range cruise or hypersonic missiles is a large extension of capability, not just a jobs program.