When it comes to nuclear deterrence, and the warheads and delivery systems that support it, the more options the better, said U.S. Strategic Command head Aif Force Gen Anthony Cotton.
Though he was careful not to name s a specific weapon system or warhead, Cotton said that when advising the president on how to keep nuclear competitors like Russia and China at bay, he is open to new weapons if needed.
Asked at a recent roundtable with reporters whether the U.S. should field an additional lower-yield theater deployed to augment the current arsenal, Cotton said he wants to survey current capabilities against an adversary’s and go from there, rather than fixate on a specific system.
“When I describe it; when I look for these deterrent challenges that I have in my portfolio and don’t have my portfolio, what do I have and what I don’t do not have?” he told reporters attending the 2023 Strategic Command (STRATCOM) Deterrence Summit in Omaha, Neb., where the command is based. “I have stated publicly that yes, I would love to be able to look to see what we have as far as low yield, non-ballistic … assets moving forward.”
“The team is looking at just that right now,” he added.”More options is better than less options if I’m presenting to the president of the United States and I would love to be able to have
more options.”
At issue, though never mentioned during Cotton’s comments, is a lower-yield version of the W80-4 warhead that would ride on a sea-launched cruise missile, or SLCM-N. The U.S. already has a dial-a-yield nuclear option in the W76-2 warhead that rides on the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile.
SLCM supporters in Congress and the military say that W76-2, owing to its ballistic flight trajectory, is a complement to and not a replacement for a cruise missile, which can fly lower and evade radar.
Since he took over at STRATCOM in December, Cotton has been careful not to endorse such a weapon. The Biden administration, as outlined in the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, considers a SLCM-N superfluous to existing capabilities and has twice attempted to kill the weapon’s development. Both times Congress has stepped in to fund A SLCM-N, most recently in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
Cotton did address the full-on effort currently underway to modernize the U.S. nuclear triad. He emphasized that the existing triad remains a “safe and secure and effective” deterrent but acknowledged there is a long row to hoe before the B-21 bomber, Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and Columbia-class submarine are ready for primetime.
“As we build out and modernize … I’d much rather be able to articulate to people that we’re at the end of our modernization instead of the beginning,” Cotton said. “Well, it is what it is. So we’re in the beginnings of our modernization program, but I’m comfortable with where we’re going with that modernization program.”
Cotton said he is “pretty comfortable” with development of the B-21 bomber and that the Northrop Grumman [NOC]-developed aircraft is “in a pretty good place.”
He was less sanguine about the prospects for Columbia, which will replace the legacy Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile subs. The new boats are scheduled to enter service beyond 2030.
“I’d much rather say that, ‘Man, by 2030 we would have had the last Colombia go in the water as opposed to you know a decade later than that,’” he said.
Without specifying a timeline for its deployment, Cotton said he is keeping an optimistic view of Sentinel’s development. As a former commander of the Air Force’s Global Strike Command, Cotton is a “missileer by trade,” who said he can insist with authority that the Minuteman III ICBM “is still a valid and effective weapon system.”
“As I look at where we are with Sentinel, I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to do well,” he said. “The problem with any legacy system is the fact that the sustainment is so burdensome on the young airmen that have to maintain those weapon systems. When it comes to that, it’s being able to be more efficient on how you sustain those weapon systems moving forward. So that’s why I’m looking forward to the transition to more modernized open architecture systems.”