The ICBM EAR Week of March 10, 2025, prepared by Peter Huessy, covers various geopolitical and defense-related developments. Key commentary includes statements from Secretary of State Marco Rubio praising progress towards peace in Ukraine and Polish President Andrzej Duda urging the U.S. to deploy nuclear weapons to Poland. The document highlights the ironclad South Korea-U.S. alliance amid North Korea’s missile tests and ongoing U.S.-ROK Freedom Shield exercises.
From the archives, the Team B Report from December 1976 criticizes the National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) for misunderstanding Soviet strategic objectives by attributing U.S. decision-making behaviors to Soviet leaders. The report emphasizes the political utility of nuclear forces and the need for a complementary war-fighting capability alongside deterrence.
Upcoming events include the NIDS/Huessy Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense Seminar Series featuring speakers like David Trachtenberg, Gordon Chang, Rick Fisher, Brad Roberts, Admiral Johnny Wolfe, Maj Gen Stacy Jo Huser, Dr. Jim Howe, Dr. Phillip Karber, and Dr. Uzi Ruben.
Administration developments discuss Elon Musk’s involvement in proposed Pentagon spending cuts, with internal memos suggesting $50 billion in cuts over five years, while a stopgap spending bill proposes a $6 billion defense spending increase. The Pentagon faces challenges in providing lists of potential defense program cuts to lawmakers.
Defense budget developments reveal concerns over a yearlong continuing resolution maintaining last year’s funding levels, potentially costing the Air Force $4-14 billion. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker advocates for increased defense spending to address threats from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Strategic developments include the U.S. warning Iran against acquiring nuclear weapons, with mixed responses from Iranian leaders. Ukraine agreed to a 30-day cease-fire with Russia under U.S. pressure, restoring American intelligence aid to Ukraine.
The document also features a special report on missile defense, emphasizing the need for an integrated, multilayered missile defense architecture to counter threats from adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The report advocates for expanding U.S. homeland and regional missile defenses, including space-based capabilities.
Congressional developments note Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s decision not to run for reelection in 2026 and the passage of a continuing resolution funding the government through the fiscal year. The document concludes with discussions on nuclear proliferation, highlighting the potential for a new nuclear arms race and the importance of disarmament efforts.
About the Author
Peter Huessy
Mr. Peter Huessy is President of his own defense consulting firm, Geostrategic Analysis, founded in 1981, and through 2021, Director of Strategic Deterrent Studies at the Mitchell Institute on Aerospace Studies. He was the senior defense consultant at the National Defense University Foundation for 22 years. He was the National Security Fellow at the AFPC, and Senior Defense Consultant at the Air Force Association from 2011-2016.
Mr. Huessy has served as an expert defense and national security analyst for over 50 years, helping his clients cover congressional activities, arms control group efforts, nuclear armed states actions, and US administration nuclear related policy, budgets, and strategies, while monitoring budget and policy developments on nuclear deterrence, ICBM modernization, nuclear arms control, and overall nuclear modernization.
He has also covered nuclear terrorism, counterterrorism, immigration, state-sponsored terrorism, missile defense, weapons of mass destruction, especially US-Israeli joint defense efforts, nuclear deterrence, arms control, proliferation, as well as tactical and strategic air, airlift, space and nuclear matters and such state and non-state actors as North Korea, China, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Qaeda. This also includes monitoring activities of think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and other US government departments, as well as projecting future actions of Congress in this area. His specialty is developing and implementing public policy campaigns to secure support for important national security objectives. And analyzing nuclear related technology and its impact on public policy, a study of which he prepared for the Aerospace Corporation in 2019.
