By Marina Malenic
A top Air Force officer who assists in overseeing the U.S. ICBM fleet said last week that all official Defense Department documentation coming across his desk has maintained support for maintaining the country’s three-pronged nuclear arsenal.
“I’m personally glad to see that every bit of guidance I’ve read, whether it be draft or final, has said that one of the objectives is to retain the triad,” Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe, vice Commander of Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colo., said during a May 1 breakfast sponsored by the NDU Foundation in Washington.
A triad refers to a nuclear arsenal consisting of three distinct types of delivery systems. The purpose of such an arrangement is to reduce the possibility that all of a country’s nuclear forces could be destroyed in a first strike. Only the United States and Russia maintain nuclear triads, which consist of strategic bombers, land-based missiles and nuclear-armed submarines.
“There will always be a debate about what our deterrence force should look like,” Deppe said. “But our adversaries know that ICBMs are a complicating factor in their decision calculus, providing the preponderance of our nation’s deterrent force.”
Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told officers at the Air War College at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Ala., that he would not make changes in B-52 Stratofortress bomber deployment numbers, but he also questioned whether the next round of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) discussions with Russia would alter the country’s need for a nuclear triad.
“You know, there are a lot of decisions that I made that I haven’t talked about publicly,” Gates said on April 15. “For example, I decided not to make any change in the 76 deployed B-52s. That force will remain.
“But the question is,” he added, “depending on where post START ends up, if we go down significantly in the number of nuclear weapons that we have deployed, the question is whether the traditional triad makes sense any more, and I think we have to address that.”
Air Force officials have acknowledged that potential reduction in nuclear warhead numbers is one of many reasons that Gates decided to postpone the start of a next generation bomber program.
Deppe, who is a member of the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) committee that will decide such questions by year’s end, voiced strong support for maintaining the triad.
“If the NPR says cut the ICBM force, obviously we will do that and salute smartly,” he said. “I’m part of the NPR committee that meets every day…I make sure, for my part, that every aspect of every leg of the triad is taken into consideration.”
Deppe noted that the Minuteman-3 ICBM program is within a few years of completing a 10-year sustainment effort in which the solid propellant motor stages will be refurbished, the guidance systems and post-boost vehicle technologies will be updated and other upgrades will be made to ensure that the fleet is fully operational through 2030.
“Unfortunately, many in this country consider nuclear weapons to be a relic of the Cold War,” the general said. “The ICBM fleet today…is actually a lot more vibrant than it was even 20 years ago.”
Deppe noted that several nations are modernizing their nuclear arsenals. However, he characterized the U.S. ICBM effort as a “service life extension program” rather than a system modernization.
“The Russians, on the other hand, are developing new concepts, new capabilities,” he said. “And that needs to be part of the NPR calculus as well. We’re not really modernizing even though we’ve spent upwards of $7 billion.”