A hefty lineup of officials spanning both the civilian and military sides of the U.S. nuclear enterprise will testify before the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces on Tuesday.
The first panel up at 4:45 p.m. will include National Nuclear Security Administration head Jill Hruby; William (Ike) White, a senior adviser for the Office of Environmental Management at the Department of Energy and Adm. James Caldwell, the Navy’s deputy administrator for naval reactors.
A second panel will then take the hot seat before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) subcommittee. Scheduled to testify are Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at NNSA; Gen. Thomas Bussiere, head of Air Force Global Strike Command and Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of Navy strategic systems programs.
Collectively, these officials are in charge of modernizing the entire U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise from production of the raw materials to make nukes to the delivery systems and platforms that carry them. The U.S. is currently undergoing a multi-billion dollar modernization program to boost the production of plutonium pits by the NNSA and develop new weapons on which warheads will ride.
On Capitol Hill this week, Navy officials will be defending their fiscal 2024 budget to, among other things, continue development of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. The Air Force is developing the B-21 stealth bomber and the Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) nuclear air-launched cruise missile. The service is also in charge of the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, also called Sentinel, a replacement for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.
For nuclear weapons programs at the NNSA, the White House seeks some $23.8 billion for 2024, up about $1.5 billion from 2023.
Hruby will be defending a budget that includes major investments in plutonium pit production at two sites to reach the goal of 80 pits per year as close to 2030 as possible, which may not happen until 2035, according to officials at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
