Lawmakers Blast Acting Navy Secretary’s Defunding of Naval Nuclear Cruise Missile
Harker confirmed that he did not consult with Pentagon or military leaders on the planned nuclear missile.
Caitlin M. Kenney | June 15, 2021 06:17 PM ET
Lawmakers on Tuesday blasted acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker’s decision to defund the planned nuclear sea-launched cruise missile in the 2023 budget, especially considering President Joe Biden’s meeting Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Do you realize the extent to which you have undermined President Biden and the United States in indicating that a weapons system that is nuclear is going to be unilaterally defunded without any negotiations or without receiving any concessions from Russia?” said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Navy budget.
Harker ordered the missile program defunded with a single line in his June 4 memo to the Navy’s top civilian and military leaders about the 2023 program objective memorandum. No reason for the decision to defund the program was written into the memo. Last week, senators asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley about the memo; both said they had not been consulted on it.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2021/06/lawmakers-blast-acting-navy-secretarys-defunding-naval-nuclear-cruise-missile/174755/
