Atomic Fireworks for Downsizing the DOD
Atomic weapons are 12 orders of magnitude more energetic than an assault rifle (1 metaton TNT ~ J vs J) supplying the equivalent of bullets of localized and instantaneous energy release with additional deposition of fission products that make the area unsafe for months if not years. Fallout is the ultimate salting of the earth, though actually less permanent as evidenced by Carthage. The atomic bomb is the king of weapons, but they can’t be used. Maybe there could be a celebratory use case with massive cost savings for the USA - atomic fireworks.
The President should institute a new tradition on Independence Day in which eight nuclear weapons are launched into space at a distance of about 200,000 km and detonated for all to see in a harmless atomic fireworks display. We have them, they work, and it is a glorious thing that we will use sparingly when the need arises. This atomic fireworks display will save the US government approximately $700B annually by allowing a significant reduction in our conventional military forces. Military expenditures would focus on the production and maintenance of nuclear warheads, reducing military expenditures by up to tenfold. With these savings, we can cut taxes, reduce deficits, or fund NASA and other worthwhile endeavors at home.
The current U.S. defense budget stands at a ridiculous $700B, which is 15% of government expenditures and 5% of GDP. This figure doesn’t include foreign aid and meddling by other federal departments used to buy US weapons, grease foreign governments, or maniuplate foreign populations. It also doesn’t account for the knock-on effects of the forever wars, veteran care, and externalities associated with maintaining such a large military and hundreds of bases adjacent to other superpowers. Approximately half of this budget provides income for 1.4 million direct employees and nearly 10 million health beneficiaries. The remainder is spent on acquiring and maintaining a vast array of military hardware, from fighter jets and tanks to aircraft carriers, much of which is becoming increasingly obsolete in modern warfare. Drone swarms and missiles will obviously destroy these systems at 1000th the cost. In summary, we have $750B, 1.4M direct employees, and roughly 5M indirect employees devoted to maintaining and operating an aging and obsolete military. And no, we don't need on the groudn personnel to go harass third world populations, no matter how much oil and resources they have or how many wives they keep or gods they worship.
This traditional approach to national security is not only financially draining but also strategically flawed. The rise of low-effort, high-impact warfare technologies including atomic weapons, bio-weapons, drones, and compute has rendered many conventional military assets highly vulnerable with very low ROI. A country that has moved away from industrial-scale production cannot hope to compete with nations like China on a conventional military industrial basis. China has a hard economy supported by 1.4 billion citizens primarily based on the production of real goods and technology as opposed to the current US economy which is highly financialized and filled with soft, intangible activities and high a degree of government employment.
How can the US maintain parity with other superpowers? No amount of reindustrialization, sanctions and trade wars, or even AI and technical superiority will level the playing field in an industrial sense. Luckily, large-scale industrial war is a thing of the past. Technological progress first gave rise to industrial warfare but has now given way to low-effort total warfare by means of atomic weapons, compute, and bio-weapons. Low effort here means that very little energy and manpower is needed to make and deploy these weapons and still achieve highly destructive results. It’s about bucks per bang, and it is now astronomically low. For example, the annual budget for maintaining and enhancing our nuclear arsenal stands at $20B, 35x less than the total defense spending. These very low $/bang technologies free up our economy for the betterment of civilization, eliminating the drain of maintaining an obsolete industrial military. By concentrating on nuclear deterrence and other low $/bang methods we can scale back our legacy military infrastructure and significantly reduce global tensions and the likelihood of conventional warfare.
The savings in military spending can be quickly transitioned to increased science and technology spending. NASA’s $20B budget could be increased 35x. The industries and companies built around this excess of futile military spending will transition from missiles to rockets, from soldiers to technicians, from generals to janitors, from tanks to trucks, trenches to walls. Advanced military technologies including sensing and communications can be transferred to commercial use to ramp up scientific and commercial endeavors. Military-grade electronics are needed for rad-hard space systems. Military-grade equipment, with their tough construction and reliability, are needed to extend product lifecycles and end the era of “planned obsolescence.”
The forever wars in the Middle East, Vietnam, and Korea are just a symptom of a confused military looking for purpose - an extreme but true simplification. In a futile search for meaning, we’ve blown up 5% of GDP per year, a compounding loss that has created enemies and destruction at home and abroad. We waste lives and efforts that could have been used to build and improve our USA which now suffers a general malaise across culturual spheres in the form of decaying urban centers, widespread obesity, inflation, pervasive legal and illegal drug use, rising suicdes and isolation, etc.
That said, military expenditures have created an incredible technological industry, with notable R&D and production capabilities. But it is undoubtedly wasted in the pursuit of an industrial military behemoth that has few effective use cases and outcomes. We have far more effective tools in the form of nuclear, biological, and computational deterrents, more in line with the non-meddling foreign policy and spending ideals of our founders. US military expenditures should be limited exclusively to nuclear deterrants and other low $/bang methods to achieve a modest military expenditure of <0.5% of GDP, similar to the late 1800s. Our formidable military-industrial complex should be repurposed to more formidable, human-centered endeavors: clean and plentiful energy, rapid and unobtrusive transit, large-scale computation, urban beautification, and space exploration.