Wolfe: Navy Plans to Start Development of Nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missile in 2022
Posted on January 14, 2021 by Richard R. Burgess, Senior Editor
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy plans to wrap up an analysis of alternatives (AoA) for a ship-launched nuclear-armed cruise missile in 2021 and begin development of the missile in 2022, said the admiral in charge of strategic weapons .
“We will finish the AoA this year per what was required by the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act],†said Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe Jr., director, Strategic Systems Programs, speaking Jan. 14 in a Nuclear Deterrence Forum webinar sponsored by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, a Washington think tank. “With that AoA, going forward and with the Department of Defense’s concurrence, design would start in [fiscal] ’22.â€
The Defense Department’s (DoD’s) 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) said the department would pursue a Sea-Launched Cruise Missile – Nuclear (SLCM-N), “leveraging existing technologies to help ensure its cost effectiveness. SLCM will provide a needed non-strategic regional presence, an assured response capability. It also will provide an arms-control compliant response to Russia’s non-compliance with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, its non-strategic nuclear arsenal, and its other destabilizing behaviors.â€
https://seapowermagazine.org/wolfe-navy-plans-to-start-development-of-nuclear-sea-launched-cruise-missile-in-2022/