[techdragon]

... Unless the silos are attacked by Submarine launched ballistic missiles using depressed trajectories as part of a neutralising/decapitation first strike.

See it's the complicated, many possible options, nature of war planning that makes stuff like this much less black and white.

[eesmith]

Whose submarines are you thinking of that could destroy all of the US ground-based missile launch facilities in a first strike?

The war planning based around what you describe assumed the Soviet submarine fleet, yes?

Are you worried about Russia, China ("the Type 094s noisiness would make it difficult for it to reach and maintain patrol areas where it could strike at the contiguous United States"), or India?

[mikeash]

Bombers could be attacked the same way, and take longer to launch and take less to destroy, so are even more vulnerable.

The threat of a sudden first strike that destroys our weapons on the ground is why we have ballistic missile submarines.

[bactrian]

The US can probably see the position of every sub on the planet using magnetic imaging.