The head of the Pentagon’s Strategic Command (STRATCOM) vigorously defended yesterday plans to build 12 SSBN(X) ballistic-missile submarines, suggesting the number of vessels could even increase.
Lawmakers and Pentagon officials alike are keeping a close eye on the cost of the Ohio-class submarine replacement program, which is just beginning in the research stages now but is expected to dominate shipbuilding spending in the 2020s.
STRATCOM Commander Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler said as far as he can see this country will need a sea-based component of the nuclear triad.
“I’m convinced that the plan that we have today, that the budget that’s on the Hill today, supports that,” Kehler said during a Peter Huessy Breakfast Series speech on Capitol Hill.
“As we look at the strategic situation that we find ourselves in, as we look to the future and see a continued value of having a survivable component of our strategic deterrent, that the advantages that the SSBNs give to us today we believe will remain valuable as far out as we can see.” He added that stance is based largely on the assumption that the United States will still have nuclear weapons in the future.
Kehler said 12 of the next-generation submarines are needed to ensure a sufficient number remains at sea, because some will not be available during maintenance cycles.
“That number can be adjusted certainly upward as we go forward, and it’s hard to predict ultimately where we will be,” he said.
“As we see it today (a fleet of) 12 gives us the right operational capabilities, it gives us…the right capacity we think for warheads that we are going to have survivable on a day-to-day basis that we could surge in a crisis,” he said. “And we believe that while there are budget pressures, this is about priorities. We see that as a priority.”
The House Armed Services Committee has directed the Navy and STRATCOM to report to it 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 he did not know about the requirement for the report.
Pentagon budget cuts led President Barack Obama to request in his FY ’13 budget proposal to delay by two years previous plans for SSBN(X) production, pushing the start date to 2021. Navy officials say they have worked diligently to reduce cost of the submarine program.