Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) last week asked President Donald Trump’s pick to head the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) not to “shield” nuclear weapons programs “from independent oversight.”
During the confirmation hearing for Vice Adm. Richard Correll to be STRATCOM commander last week in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Warren said the nation’s nuclear arsenal would cost “$946 billion just over the next 10 years. That’s almost a trillion dollars and that’s just an estimate.”
“Systems like Sentinel,” the Northrop Grumman-developed LGM-35A future intercontinental ballistic missile that will replace Boeing Minuteman III as the ground based strategic deterrent, now cost “almost double their original estimates given to Congress,” Warren continued, which she said hurts “not just taxpayers” but also “jeopardizes our national security.”
The Air Force gave Congress a “rosy cost estimate” for Sentinel, and the program ended up costing $60 billion over that estimate, Warren said. She said the Air Force was able to do this by saying Minuteman III could not extend past 2036, meaning Sentinel needed more money and earlier. “Turns out that wasn’t true either,” Warren said, adding Minuteman III’s commissioning will extend “through 2050.”
“The dollar figure was wrong and the time was wrong on it,” Warren said. “Do you commit to ensure that STRATCOM will not stand in the way of independent studies or independent recommendations on Sentinel or any program moving forward?”
Correll responded, “I commit to providing my best military advice,” an answer Warren seemed satisfied with.
Warren also said “think tanks influential within the administration” want to add to Sentinel by making it mobile, which Warren says will be more costly and complex. “If you were told to consider a mobile” option again, Warren asked, and military analysis showed an increase in cost and complexity, “would you commit to sharing those results as part of your military advice with Congress?” Correll did commit to doing so.