Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
2/27/2015
The Air Force is expanding its five-year nuclear enterprise funding portfolio to foster morale, equipment, and modernization improvements, as the service has programmed an additional $5.6 billion in the Fiscal Year 2016-2020 Future Years Defense Program over last year’s FYDP projection, the top Air Force official told Senators this week. “This will be not a one-shot deal,” said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James at a Feb. 25 FY 2016 budget hearing of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. “It’s not a one-year thing. It needs to continue. When I’m talking about changes, I’m talking about changes in the way we train and evaluate our people, changes in the incentives that we provide to our people. We are really trying to shift a culture, a culture away from what I’ll call one that had been quite micro managed and very focused on ‘test, test, test,’ ‘evaluate, evaluate, evaluate,’ to shift toward one which is one of continuous improvement.” James said the funding plus-up reflects the importance of the nuclear enterprise to Air Force Pentagon leadership.
GOP Sens. Voice Support for Proposed FY 2016 Triad Investments
During the hearing, Republican senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Steve Daines (Mont.) voiced their respective approval to James and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh for proposed FY 2016 investments in a consolidated stealth and nuclear alert facility at Whiteman AFB, and in the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), which could fill up to 150 silos at Malmstrom AFB.
According to the Defense Department’s FY 2016 budget request, the Air Force is seeking $29.5 million for the proposed Whiteman facility, which would consolidate sortie generation activities into one facility. DoD also requested $75 million to begin work on the GBSD, the Minuteman 3 follow-on. “I applaud the Administration for requesting strong funding—the $75 million for modernizing the ICBM arsenal,” Daines said.
To be sure, minutes later, Daines expressed opposition to President Barack Obama’s 2013 proposal in Berlin to reduce the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles by one-third, which Russia has balked at ever since. “Many of us believe a peace through strength strategy, particularly in this world that is increasingly more dangerous, is the right approach,” Daines said. “Our ICBMs and nuclear mission is something that keeps the peace in this world.” James emphasized she thought it was “crucial” to maintain a flexible nuclear triad, and voiced against cutting the triad to a one- or two-headed capability. “I like all three because of the flexibility, the responsiveness and so forth that it provides,” she said.
Blunt Encourages Nuclear Investments
Blunt echoed Daines’ support for the FY 2016 budget request, which saw plus-ups across the nuclear enterprise. “I’m really pleased to see the proposed investment in MILCON in the new stealth and nuclear alert facility at Whiteman Air Force Base,” Blunt said. “I continue to encourage [Air Force] efforts in that direction.” Earlier during the hearing, Welsh emphasized to the subcommittee that critical infrastructure, including nuclear infrastructure, has been “intentionally underfunded” over the last 15 years to focus spending on individual and unit readiness. “That bill is now due,” he said. “And this budget request begins the persistent long-term investment that will recover this mission-critical infrastructure.”
