Kilby, strategic systems lead weigh ‘alternatives’ for SLCM-N

Admiral James Kilby, acting chief of Naval Operations, told a Congressional hearing last week that he was in talks with the director of Strategic Systems Programs on nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) alternatives.

“I’ve had a couple of sessions with Vice Admiral Johnny Wolf, who is the strategic programs office lead, who will produce this,” Kilby said in a May 15 oversight hearing on the Marine Corps and Navy with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. “He’s on target for a new production by 2035 but to your point, he’s looked at some alternatives, and we haven’t totally briefed the Secretary on those yet, but he’s looking at speed and an urgency to get something out sooner.”

Kilby responded to a question by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), a member of the subcommittee whose district abuts the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Y-12 National Security Complex. He asked how the Navy is ensuring the SLCM-N program does not “stall in development purgatory for years when we need a capability as soon as possible.”

“I’m a strong proponent of the nuclear sea-launched cruise missile program,” Fleischmann said. “Recognizing, Sir, that we are limited on our launch tubes afloat, it is only necessary to have a small number of tactical nuclear weapons to significantly complicate our adversary’s decision calculus. I think given this dangerous capability gap, the emphasis should be on speed.”

“We do not need to reinvent the wheel when we’re talking about a capability we recently had in service only 15 years ago,” Fleischmann added.

Wolfe himself, in a hearing this week in front of the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee, said “the greatest risk to the 2034 timeline” is “really understanding, how are we going to get this system integrated into a platform that was never purpose built for that,” as well as “do that in a way so that we don’t deter from the primary SSN mission.”

Wolfe responded to Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) who, not for the first time, expressed a “big concern” over inserting a nuclear-armed missile into the Virginia-class submarine and disrupting training for a submarine that is not in the nuclear triad.

The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Navy and the NNSA to deploy SLCM-N by 2034. The W80-4 warhead, while facing some delays in 2022, is currently on schedule, a senior official at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told the Exchange Monitor in December. Even so, this past summer then-NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said the agency was also looking at other possible warhead fits if delays persist.