Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
4/11/2014
The Department of Defense this week announced its force structure implementation plan under the New START Treaty, spreading cuts out across the three legs of the nuclear triad. Under the plan, the Pentagon will trim the size of its deployed intercontinental ballistic missile force by 50 ICBMs to 400 but preserve each of its missile wings, while four missile tubes will be eliminated from the 14 Ohio class nuclear submarines, leading to a reduction of 56 delivery vehicles.
Thirty B-52 bombers will also be stripped of their nuclear role, leaving 66 nuclear-capable B-52s and B-2s. Of those, 60 will be deployed. Under the terms of the treaty, the United States must reduce its nuclear forces to 800 delivery vehicles (700 of which can be deployed) by 2018 and 1,550 nuclear warheads. The Pentagon said the reductions will cost $301.1 million from Fiscal Year 2014 to FY 2018.
“This force structure achieves the right balance and flexibility, survivability and responsiveness of our nuclear forces and supports our national security objectives by providing a mix of force capabilities and attributes to ensure the President has an array of options available under a broad range of scenarios and preserves a just in case upload capability for all legs of the triad,” Elaine Bunn, the Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy, said at a House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing shortly after the implementation plan was released.
ICBM Caucus Welcomes Silo Decision
While the number of deployed ICBMs will be reduced, the ICBM launch silos will be kept active—just empty. Major cuts to the nation’s ICBM force were opposed by the Senate’s ICBM caucus, which welcomed the decision to keep the silos in warm standby.
“Today’s news is welcome, but the fight is not over, and I will be on the frontline to make sure Malmstrom continues to play an important role in our nation’s defense,” Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.) said. “ICBMs continue to be the most cost-effective part of our nuclear defenses and at a time of instability in eastern Europe, it is critical that the ICBM mission remains strong.”
The ICBM caucus also opposed an environmental assessment (EA) that the Pentagon planned to conduct to analyze potential options for closing missile silos. Language in the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Appropriations Act prohibited the Pentagon from conducting the study, and the Department of Defense recently acknowledged it would not perform the assessment.
At this week’s House Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing, Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) questioned whether the Department of Defense had enough information to make a force structure decision without the environmental assessment. In response, Bunn said “there was a lot of information gathered over two years’ time. We would have liked to have had further information through an EA to have even more information, but the decision that was made was a good one that was supported by the Department of Defense broadly.”
Navy Comfortable With Reduction in Missile Tubes
At the same hearing, Adm. Terry Benedict, head of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs, said he was comfortable with the move to reduce the number of tubes in ballistic missile submarines from 20 to 16.
“I believe, in my professional opinion, that the decision is very much in concert with the course that has been set as we move toward the Ohio replacement program of 12 submarines with 16 tubes,” Benedict said. “So the deactivation of four tubes on Ohio is very consistent with the long-range decision that has already been made by the Secretary of Defense and the Administration.”
