[larkeith]

> boosting the overall killing power of existing US ballistic missile forces by a factor of roughly three

The measure by which the authors conclude a tripling in killing power seems to be intentionally misleading:

> This 86 percent probability is very close to what could be achieved using three warheads with conventional fuzes to attack the same target. To put it differently: In the case of the 100-kt Trident II warhead, the super fuze triples the killing power of the nuclear force it has been applied to.

While obtaining the same probability of destroying any given target requires one third as many warheads, the more relevant statistic seems to me to be expected number of warheads required per target, which is decreased by less than half; Total targets destroyed per missile launched, which seems a more accurate descriptor of "killing power", is increased by a factor of about 1.7 - still notable, but very much not the tripling claimed.