As the Obama Administration moves to further reduce the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, it should do so cautiously, according to Maj. Gen. Stephen Wilson, the commander of the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base and the Joint Functional Component-Global Strike for U.S. Strategic Command. “We need to be cognizant of a potential paradox in reducing our nuclear forces in a way to a nuclear-free world,” Wilson said Friday at the fifth annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit. “As we move toward fielding a smaller number of deployed delivery systems and warheads, we take risk. We take risk in reducing our ability to meet emerging challenges from our adversaries. We take risk in meeting the challenges of keeping the force safe, secure and effective. Risk and the perception of risk affects credibility.” The Obama Administration hasn’t said exactly how much further it would like to cut and Wilson declined to specify how far he would be comfortable in cutting, but he said any cuts should be made with the potential impact on the nation’s extended deterrent and the risk in increasing a nuclear conflict in mind. “A nuclear force that becomes marginalized operationally or is perceived as such introduces ambiguity and diminishes deterrence capability,” he said. “The end game in reaching nuclear zero may well be the most dangerous part. And when we arrive in a nuclear-free world again, we’ll need to remember that it may be much more expensive to provide for the common defense of our nation.”
He called the nation’s nuclear deterrent a significant bargain and noted that the U.S. spends less than 1 percent of the Pentagon budget on Air Force Global Strike Command. “The U.S. Post Office lost more money in 2011 than we spent on two legs of the triad,” he said. “Our nuclear enterprise is a great bargain, and it’s no coincidence. It provides great defense value for the unique missions that only the nuclear force can accomplish.”
