As the nation’s nuclear deterrence mission faces budgetary constraints from Congress, Maj. Gen. William Chambers, the Air Force’s Assistant Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, warned Friday against removing one “leg” of the traditional nuclear triad of intercontinental ballistic missiles, bombers and submarine-launched missiles. “We believe not only its proven reliability over 60 years, but we believe looking forward, in the various cases that we’ve looked at in this security environment, that the triad remains the best mix of capabilities,” Chambers said at a Capitol Hill Club event. “If you take one away, you undermine the nation’s ability in the central deterrence case and in the ability to extend that deterrent umbrella to allies. The number of allies who want that umbrella and the number of potential regional adversaries that need to be deterred is, quite frankly, on the rise.”
Chambers’ remarks come after Gen. Robert Kehler, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, said earlier this month that Congressional belt tightening, along with future modernization and arms control efforts, could result in a move to a “dyad” from the current triad. However, reducing spending on all three legs of the triad would be preferable to removing one leg, Chambers said. “We believe that if and as numbers decline, that the triad as a complimentary mix of capabilities does still meet the needs of this security environment. Depending on what you do with each leg and how far you go with each leg it will have a different kind of effect on the other legs,” he told reporters following the event. “The triad has the ability to do both central deterrence and extended deterrence. If all three came down to a certain level you would have to analyze the result.”
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