As the National Nuclear Security Administration refines its alternative plutonium strategy, Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler said yesterday that he is is slowly gaining confidence in the plan. Since the Obama Administration decided to defer construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility in February, deciding to pursue an alternative strategy that includes using existing facilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory as well as buildings at other weapons complex sites, Kehler has expressed concern with the lack of a concrete path forward. “I do think that we are beginning to close on a way ahead here that will have us have sufficient interim capability while we look to get the long term solution back on track,” Kehler said during a press conference at the fourth Deterrence Symposium in Omaha, Neb. “I don’t know what form that will finally take. It’s still under discussion. I think we’ve had … very good discussions about the way forward.”
Kehler also spoke out against a recent Global Zero report that suggested the U.S. should reduce the size of its stockpile to 900 total weapons and abandon the ICBM leg of the nuclear triad. Kehler said that current “glide slope” the nation is following to reducing the size of the stockpile is the right approach, and suggested that the Global Zero report—authored in part by former Strategic Command chief and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright—was too drastic a move. “I do not think we are in the place he suggests now nor do I see that particular place any time soon,” Kehler said. He did, however, acknowledge that a case can be made for additional cuts and suggested that the nation’s reserve stockpile is ripe for cuts, echoing a statement earlier this week by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz to the Boston Globe. He said with an increased ability to reuse warhead components and a modernized infrastructure, “We think we can do something different with the stockpile going forward. I think that is right. That’s a position I’d like to be in in the future,” Kehler said.
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