NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.–Defense Department leaders re-emphasized their commitment to the nuclear triad this week at the Air Force Association’s 2012 Air and Space Exposition here.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey told an audience yesterday though future budget challenges may cause the Pentagon to reassess how it manages the nuclear triad–composed of land, sea and air-based deterrence–it remains committed to it.
“Future budget challenges could cause us to rethink the way we manage our nuclear enterprise,” Dempsey said. “But, for now I can tell you, categorically and definitively, we are committed to a nuclear triad.”
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said Tuesday during his state of the Air Force speech the nuclear mission is the service’s foremost priority.
“The nuclear mission, continuing the strength of the enterprise, is still our number one priority in the United States Air Force and it will remain that way,” Welsh said. “It’s a big deal for us, we can’t ever afford to get this wrong.”
Pentagon officials are assessing every program in today’s era of tightening defense budgets and the nuclear enterprise is no exception. U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) Chief Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler in July defended plans to build 12 SSBN(X) ballistic-missile submarines. Lawmakers and Pentagon officials are keeping a close eye on the cost of of the Ohio-class submarine replacement program, which is just beginning in the research stages but is expected to dominate shipbuilding spending in the 2020s.
The House Armed Services Committee has directed the Navy and STRATCOM to report on alternative options to current SSBN(X) plans, including dipping the fleet to as few as eight subs with 20 missile tubes each. Kehler said the number of SSBN(X) subs could increase beyond 12 (Defense Daily, July 13).
Kehler said in late May he is “most concerned” with the potential for declining or inadequate investment in the nuclear enterprise itself, a diminishing investment that would result in DoD’s inability to keep the nuclear deterrent force able and ready to do its job (Defense Daily, May 31).