https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2023/10/12/congressional-commission-calls-for-more-nuclear-arsenal-expansion/

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Congress established the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States to examine the U.S. nuclear capability as part of the fiscal 2022 defense policy bill. The commission’s report identified capabilities beyond existing programs needed to accelerate and enhance nuclear modernization efforts.

“The current modernization program should be supplemented to ensure U.S. nuclear strategy remains effective in a two-nuclear-peer environment,” it said.

The report states that current modernization programs were developed under the 2010 security environment mainly with Russia on mind and China as a “lesser-included case.”

“The aggressive foreign policies of China and Russia, the extent of their nuclear modernization, and the possibility of conflict with China and Russia were not foreseen,” said the report. It assessed that “the risk of a major nuclear conflict remains low,” but the risk of a conventional military conflict with both countries has grown, thereby raising the possibility of a nuclear strike on the homeland.

The commission notes in its report that while it “did not conduct a cost analysis of our recommendations, it is obvious they will cost money.”

A July Congressional Budget Office report projects that nuclear modernization efforts will cost $756 billion over the next decade, and that excludes costs for the additional nuclear initiatives the commission would like the U.S. to pursue.

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Additionally, the commission calls for uploading “some or all of the” unemployed warheads in U.S. inventory, deploying additional Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and long-range standoff weapons, increasing the planned number of B-21 bombers and upping the planned production of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.