Survey Finds Broad Public Support for Nuclear Deterrence Modernization
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Posted On November 15, 2021
Story by Greg Hadley, Air Force Magazine
A vast majority of voters believe that nuclear deterrence should be one of the highest priorities for the Department of Defense, with a majority also supporting modernization efforts, according to a new survey.
The survey, commissioned by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and run by Seven Letter Insight, asked more than 2,000 voters for their views on national security and nuclear arms, at a time when the Pentagon and Congress are working to replace or update all three legs of the nuclear triad. For the Air Force, this means replacing the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile with the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent and introducing the B-21 Raider bomber. At the same time, the U.S. Navy is working to bring on the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine.
The necessity of the GBSD in particular has been questioned by key lawmakers, and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has said the program’s future will depend on the results of a Nuclear Posture Review. The latest estimates place acquisition costs for the GBSD at $100 billion, with a full life cycle cost of $264 billion lasting into the 2070s.
But a full 81 percent of respondents to the survey said they supported “ground-based nuclear capabilities” when asked to choose between two statements, one emphasizing the security benefits of such a system and the other emphasizing the high costs.
The survey, conducted online from Aug. 10 to Aug. 23, 2021, has a margin of error of 2.1 percent, with a voter sample mirrored off 2020 voting records and exit polling.
