Experts: Nuclear Modernization Could Survive Tough Budget Climate

If the Obama Administration prioritizes nuclear modernization, the nuclear triad can survive a tight budgetary climate. That was the message that Clark Murdock, Director of the Project on Nuclear Issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, delivered on Wednesday at CSIS’ annual Global Security Forum in Washington. “The question is what does the Administration, what does the Department of Defense, require to be their top priorities,” he said. “You can protect strategic modernization if you want to. The dollars are there.” At about 5 percent, the nuclear triad occupies a small portion of the total defense budget, Murdock noted.

 

As concerns persist about the future viability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, most modernization programs should survive the near term, said Robert Hale, who served as under secretary of defense (comptroller) from 2009 to 2014. “All of those programs will get looked at on a tight budget, but I think there’s a pretty strong level of concern over the nuclear forces right now, that much of the operating budgets in some of the smaller procurements are likely to win support,” he said. Nuclear modernization plans should move forward as planned until at least 2016, Hale said.