In the past half month, the Biden administration in the United States has begun to raise the topic of nuclear weapons again, which has attracted widespread attention from the outside world. In particular, the unilateral tearing up of the "nuclear disarmament" with Russia has triggered widespread panic in Europe. And just a few days ago, the news came that China may face a crazy enemy.
According to the American media "Capitol Hill", the head of the US military's next-generation nuclear missile project, Colonel Charles Clegg, was dismissed. According to the US media, Colonel Charles Clegg is the head of the US military's next-generation nuclear missile "Sentinel" system management agency in July 2022, and the full name of the project is the LGM-35A "Sentinel" intercontinental ballistic missile. Intuitively speaking, nuclear weapons, as the ultimate weapon currently controlled by mankind, can be said to be the most core field of national security. To be able to sit in the position of the person in charge, it must have been assessed at all levels. However, Colonel Charles Clegg was removed from his post, and for what reason?
On the whole, there are three reasons for the United States. The first, as the American media guessed, said that the cost of the development budget of the "Sentinel" was seriously overrun, reaching 37%. Corruption may be involved. The second, revealed by the U.S. Air Force, said that Klein's dismissal was a "failure to follow organizational procedures" and was not directly related to budget overruns. The third is the issue of its leadership.
However, in my opinion, there may be a fourth, that is, the "political victim" of the US Air Force. Frankly speaking, in the past ten years, the United States has "exceeded the budget" in military equipment research and development, and it does not seem to be a very special thing. Ford-class aircraft carriers, Zumwalt, hypersonic weapons, space exploration, and so on, none of them are not seriously overrun. In fact, the US military began to develop the "Sentinel" intercontinental missile project 10 years ago, and the budget has changed from $96 billion to $131 billion.
Moreover, the over-budget was actually a revelation in January this year, when the project leader of the US arms giant Norge Company, which was involved in the project, has been "shouting grievances", accusing the US Air Force of adding additional requirements that led to budget overruns. The U.S. Air Force demanded that the connecting cables for missile silos be changed from copper to fiber. And the United States has at least 450 silos with a total length of more than 12,000 kilometers. Considering that the U.S. military can sell a coffee cup for $1,000 and a pack of nuts for $90,000, if you change the fiber, I'm afraid it will be an astronomical amount. Needless to say, the "contractor" who provides optical fiber cannot eat such a big cake alone. However, since the East Window incident occurred and the progress of the project was slow, the person in charge of the US military's "Sentinel" project may have to come out to block the gun.
In fact, for nearly two years, the United States has been frantically dismissing the commanders of the navy, army, and air force, and this has to be said to be an ominous signal. From cruisers, destroyers to nuclear submarines, and even commanders of electronic warfare squadrons, combat readiness centers of the Atlantic Fleet, every time they are removed, they are "losing confidence". This is very rare. Further, with the white-hot game between China and the United States, the United States is actually cleaning up its internal problems so that it can better deal with the war. This time, the person in charge of the next generation of nuclear missiles in the United States will be replaced, and it is difficult for us to say whether the next successor will be able to do the job. But given the extreme anti-China sentiment and atmosphere in the current US political arena, I am afraid that the next one will be an even crazier person.