The U.S. needs all three legs of its nuclear triad, including the land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles maintained by the Air Force, as well as the sea-based weapons that are the domain of the Navy. In a nuclear conflict where adversaries launch a first strike, it's possible they might render U.S. ground-based and air-launched systems unusable. But the U.S. still maintains deterrence though sea-based systems, which guarantee a second-strike capability— the ability to strike back. "If you think about it from the adversary's perspective, anything that they may think they could do as an initial strike, that...
