The U.S. Defense Department is set to complete its new Nuclear Posture Review this spring, and deliberations could address the types of weapons and nuclear yields necessary for the U.S. deterrent going forward, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said Tuesday.
“I do believe we’re going to have discussions about munitions. I do believe we’re going to have discussions about yields. I do believe we’re going to have discussions about numbers of munitions required,” he said during a breakfast meeting with reporters.
Goldfein said he was “absolutely” prepared to consider the recommendations in a recent Defense Science Board report that calls on the new Trump administration to update the nuclear enterprise so that it could, as necessary, create “a rapid, tailored nuclear option for limited use.” Such an effort would encompass consideration of “lower yield options,” according to the recommendations from the panel of experts, first reported last week by CQ Roll Call.
The Defense Department has already undertaken a nuclear deterrent modernization program that is expected to cost $1 trillion over 30 years. To date, that has focused on replacements for today’s ICBMs, strategic bombers, and ballistic missile submarines. The most contentious question, in public at least, has been whether to build a new nuclear cruise missile.
On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump signed an order calling for a new National Defense Strategy, including an updated Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) “to ensure that the United States nuclear deterrent is modern, robust, flexible, resilient, ready, and appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure our allies.”
The Nuclear Posture Review would formalize the nation’s nuclear deterrent policy for up to a decade. “I fully anticipate that we will have a Nuclear Posture Review this spring,” Goldfein said. “I’m actually eager to have that dialogue, because it’s time for us, with any new administration, to have a fresh look at the nuclear enterprise that results in strategic guidance, policy guidance, to the department on where the administration wants us to go.”
