Posted: January 22, 2016 1:26 PM
STRATCOM Chief: Nuclear Deterrent Must be Modernized, Sustained
By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor
SILVER SPRING, Md. – The commander of the nation’s nuclear-armed forces said the United States faces increasing challenges in sustaining and modernizing its nuclear deterrent capabilities.
“We are fast approaching the point where we will put at risk a safe, secure, effective and ready deterrent, jeopardizing strategic stability,” Adm. Cecil Haney, commander, U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told an audience Jan.22 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “We must not let our strategic deterrent capabilities be determined by failure to sustain and modernize our forces. This is critical in the global security environment.”
“The upkeep of our nuclear weapons inventory increasingly challenges our airmen, our Sailors and our maintenance personnel to meet my operational availability requirements,” Haney said. “We must sustain and modernize our work force.”
“Sustainment is a must, recapitalization is a requirement,” he said.
He also noted that “budget stability is integral to strategic stability.”
Haney expressed his support for new programs, such as the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, the Long-Range Strategic Bomber, the Ohio-Replacement ballistic-missile submarine, and the Long-Range Stand-Off missile.
The Ohio Replacement program is “necessary to provide maximum survivability,” he said.
Haney said the current strategic environment “continues to increase in complexity,” with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea all pushing against the status quo and developing or strengthening capabilities.
He noted that Russia has a new security strategy and “is using it to re-emerge as a great power.”
Haney said he did see progress in nuclear weapons reduction, noting that 85 percent of nuclear weapons had been withdrawn since the end of the Cold War, and that there has been continued progress in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia.
He said the United States is on track to reducing its types of delivery vehicles to four; is placing 50 intercontinental missiles in a non-deployed status, and has converted the rest to a single warhead each; removed the nuclear delivery capability of 42 B-52H Stratofortress bombers; and removed Trident missiles from four launch tubes on each of the 14 Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines.
“Let there be no doubt that the remaining systems must be safe, secure, effective and ready,” he said.
Haney noted China “continues to make military investments” in its nuclear and conventional arsenals, re-engineering its long-range ballistic missiles with multiple nuclear warheads, and conducting tests of a hyper-glide vehicle, developments he said “raises questions about China’s global aspirations.” North Korea continues to advance its military capabilities with tests of road-mobile and submarine-launched ballistic missile technologies, he said. Regarding Iran, he said the United States “must be vigilant” for any shift in Iranian progress toward a nuclear-weapons capability.
http://www.seapowermagazine.org/stories/20160122-stratcom.html
