The U.S. Department of Defense is scrutinizing all three legs of the nation’s aging nuclear triad as part of its nuclear posture review, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday.
“We’re looking at each leg of the triad and we’re looking at each weapon inside each leg,” Mattis testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense panel. “What I’m looking for is a deterrent that will be most compelling to make certain that these weapons are never used.”
Mattis’ comments came in response to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who urged DoD to determine which nuclear modernization efforts are truly needed for deterrence and which are not.
“The nuclear posture review, I hope, will prioritize nuclear weapons investments,” she said.
The department currently plans to replace aging Navy ballistic missile submarines, Air Force bomber aircraft, Air Force land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and the weapons the new platforms will carry. But it will struggle to afford all of those items, which are expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
Feinstein specifically urged Mattis to take a “new look” at the Long Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO), a planned replacement for the Air Force’s Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM). She cited not only its cost but its potentially “destabilizing” attributes, which she said she could not discuss in a public session.
“It’s got features that concern me greatly,” she told Mattis. “I do not see it as an effective deterrent weapon. I see it as Russia taking action to counter it.”
Mattis said he is weighing such concerns about the LRSO against the need to ensure that Air Force bombers can deliver nuclear weapons from standoff ranges.
“I’ve got to do more study,” he told Feinstein.
