This is the Cato Daily podcast for Tuesday, January 21st, 2025.

I'm Caleb Brown.

A cornerstone of American nuclear strategy is the nuclear triad, that is, utilizing three

potential methods for delivering nuclear weapons.

Eric Gomez, a now former senior fellow at the Cato Institute, discussed with me last week

the importance of considering costs and benefits of each leg of that triad if the U.S. military

works to maintain readiness and deterrence.

In the confirmation hearing of Pete Heegsith for Defense Secretary, there was a pretty

brief discussion of what's known as the nuclear triad, and these are delivery systems for

nuclear weapons. Can you walk us through what that refers to specifically?

Sure. So triad three, and the three things that refers to are air-based, so air-based weapons

like launch from fighter aircraft and bombers, sea-based missiles launched from

submarines, and land-based weapons launched from silos in the ground. So that's the triad, right?

It's air, sea, and land, and it's been a cornerstone of American nuclear strategy

for a very long time. And so, since the U.S. is the only country that's ever used nuclear weapons

in war, we've only used one method for delivery.

Right.

So why is it important for some to maintain that these three different methods of delivery of nuclear weapons? And what are the costs associated with that?

The technical or the sort of war fighting reason you want to have, that people want to have all

three, is that they do different things for you, right? The sea leg, my favorite leg, as any,

I think nuclear policy walk has a favorite. My favorite leg is the sea leg. And the

sea leg is great because American submarines are incredibly quiet, incredibly difficult to detect.

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