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Serp Kannella Gigante writes:

The Pentagon will invest billions of dollars [foreignpolicy.com] into improving, managing, and reforming the its nuclear forces as part of an effort to improve the management and security of the United States' troubled [washingtonpost.com] nuclear force, even as experts are sceptical that money could solve problems resulting from questions about the mission itself.

"We must restore the prestige that attracted the brightest minds of the Cold War era, so our most talented young men and women see the nuclear pathway as promising in value," said Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at a Pentagon news conference.

To do this, the Pentagon is going to put higher-ranked officers in a number of key jobs. For example, the Air Force's Global Strike Command will now be led by a four-star general and Air Staff's head of strategic deterrence and nuclear integration will switch from a two-star job to a three-star billet.

  At the same time, maintaining this leg of the nuclear triad faces sustained criticism, especially in today's budget environment. Critics say there is no plausible scenario under which these weapons would be fired, so why keep them around? "The problem is there is no mission; more money can't invent one," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

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