This is a pretty amazing analysis from James Forsyth, Gary Schaub, and Colonel B. Chance Saltzman, the chief of the Strategic Plans and Policy Division at Headquarters Air Force – very much Air Force insiders [pdf]:

This [the commission report] represents a 90-percent reduction in the nuclear arsenal but offers more than enough deterrent capability while providing flexibility to pragmatically implement the force structure cuts. In fact, the United States could address military utility concerns with only 311 nuclear weapons in its nuclear force structure while maintaining a stable deterrence… it does not matter if Russia, who is America’s biggest competitor in this arena, follows suit. The relative advantage the Russians might gain in theory does not exist in reality. Even if one were to assume the worst—a bolt from the blue that took out all of America’s ICBMs—the Russians would leave their cities at risk and therefore remain deterred from undertaking the first move.

As the Wonk Room notes, these are real insiders who are making these recommendations:

The article in Strategic Studies Quarterly is not an isolated ivory tower scholarly piece divorced from the actual strategic thinking taking place inside the Air Force. Two of the authors – James Forsyth and Gary Schaub – are professors at war colleges at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. The Air Force war colleges are not known for their independence and free-thinking, as they are generally seen as much less free wheeling than other services war colleges. But more surprising is the third author, Colonel B. Chance Saltzman, who is the chief of the Strategic Plans and Policy Division at Headquarters Air Force. Saltzman is therefore an integral figure in determining Air Force strategy and works closely with General Norton Schwartz the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. In short, this article is not by some Air Force outsiders, but from very influential insiders.

And all of this is coming while the White House is undergoing a review on nuclear weapons policy aimed at reducing the stockpile in accordance with President Obama’s campaign rhetoric and promises.

It’s a new day when Air Force influentials and decision makers are advocating an end to our expensive and overblown cold-war era nuclear strategy. Let’s hope Obama listens to the "commanders on the ground," so to speak.