VCDNP Research Associate Noah Mayhew has been selected as the recipient of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ 2021 Leonard M. Rieser Award for his July 2021 article “A millennial’s view: ICBMs are ridiculous.”
In the article, Mr. Mayhew argues that intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are a particularly dangerous leg of the nuclear triad, that they are unnecessary for the United States to maintain a credible nuclear deterrent, and that the exorbitant cost of the nuclear modernization project is unjustifiable. For these reasons, he recommends that US President Joe Biden freezes the budget for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, short of planning to phase out American ICBMs altogether.
John Mecklin, editor-in-chief of the Bulletin, said this of Mr. Mayhew’s article.
“Noah Mayhew's piece brings a thoughtful generational analysis to the debate over the cost and strategic value of one leg of the US nuclear triad, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. […] This is a powerful piece that speaks to and for a younger generation and is therefore exactly the kind of work the Rieser Award means to encourage."
