Not only is modernizing and recapitalizing the nuclear deterrent the Pentagon’s top priority, but modernizing the system’s command and control (C2) capabilities is another prerogative, according to officials.

The Defense Department’s nuclear deterrent is composed of a number of parts, including ICBMs, bombers, ballistic missile submarines and the C2 system that binds them together. Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Air Force Gen. Paul Selva said Wednesday a number of decisions over the past decade to defer modernization in favor of other priorities has placed an extra premium on a very deliberate long-term strategy to replace these systems.

A trail from a recent Minuteman III test launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Photo: Air Force.
A trail from a recent Minuteman III test launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Photo: Air Force.

Former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in September that DoD, over the last 25 years, made “only modest investments” of about $15 billion a year in basic sustainment and operations. DoD’s fiscal year 2017 budget submission requested $19 billion for the nuclear enterprise, and over the next five years, the Pentagon plans to spend $108 billion. This would go toward sustainment and recapitalization of the nuclear force and strategic command, control, communications (C3) and intelligence systems.

“There’s an urgency in terms of time and stable long-term investment in order to be able to deliver this capability,” Selva told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on Wednesday.

U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) chief Air Force Gen. John Hyten testified that nuclear C3 arm of the program is his biggest concern. Hyten said that though everything currently works effectively, the system is ancient and ancient is “very, very” hard to recapitalize.

Hyten said the C3 system was exercised as recently as Sunday when DoD officials were tracking the most recent North Korea missile launch. He said, as an example, the system sends indications and warnings from the system’s space-based constellation to its ground based radars, into the C2 system, and provides a picture of a threat that would come at the United States. Hyten said the satellites see the threats, and if they come into the radar fans, the radar will see them, meaning the C2 works.

But Hyten said the true problem is what lies ahead 10 years from today, when DoD has a 20th century architecture it is trying to maintain.

“It works every time we put it together, (but) my concern is we are creating fragility in the future,” Hyten said. “It has to be addressed and it has to be addressed in the near term across the enterprise, that’s in the Navy and the Air Force.”

The Pentagon has a number of nuclear modernization efforts underway. It is procuring new nuclear submarines; this is called the Ohio-class program. It is also in the early stages of procuring the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBDS) that will replace the Minuteman III ICBMs. The Air Force is also developing a new nuclear capable bomber called the B-21 or Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB).

Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson testified Wednesday the B-21 recently passed a preliminary design review (PDR), but didn’t provide further details. PDR is a technical assessment that permits a weapon system to proceed into the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase.