In a widely noted report this week calling for hundreds of billions of dollars in additional spending for the U.S. Defense Department, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appears satisfied with the present program for modernizing the nation’s nuclear deterrent.
“There is bipartisan consensus in support of the current nuclear modernization plan – replacing our ballistic missile submarines, strategic bombers and air launched cruise missiles, and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMS), while modernizing the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons research and manufacturing enterprise,” McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in his report, Restoring American Power.
The cost for upkeep and updates to the nuclear deterrent is just 5 percent of national defense spending over the upcoming 10 years, the report says, without providing specific dollar amounts. Ultimately, modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal is expected to cost about $1 trillion over the next 30 years.
McCain said the current modernization steps must be taken without delay:
- Maintaining nuclear force levels allowed under the U.S.-Russian New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty: 400 ICBMs, 240 submarine-launched ballistic missiles on 12 submarines, and 60 long-range bombers.
- Moving forward with replacements for the current ballistic missile submarines, strategic bomber, and ICBMs.
- Building the Long-Range Standoff missile to replace today’s Air Launched Cruise Missile, and life extensions for the B61 gravity bomb and the W76-1, W78, W80, and interoperable warheads.
- Updating nuclear command and control and communications.
- Developing a nuclear-capable version of the F-35 fighter jet.
- Recapitalizing aging DOE nuclear facilities, including the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
More broadly, McCain recommended $430 billion in additional defense spending over existing plans for fiscal years 2018 to 2022, along with other changes to strengthen a military he argued has been dangerously weakened under the Obama administration.
