B
oth Americans and Russians, according to recent polls in both countries, would like to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. The WorldPublicOpinion.org and Center for International And Security Studies (University of Maryland) poll found that a majority of Americans (73 percent) and Russians (63 percent) favor elimination of nuclear weapons, if there is an advanced international system of verification. Roughly a similar percentage in both countries favor taking nukes off alert right now.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.