House and Senate authorizers have agreed to language in the recently completed compromise version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Authorization Act that would require a First Production Unit be completed on a new air-launched nuclear cruise missile warhead by 2025, reversing plans by the Administration to delay the warhead until 2027. House and Senate authorizers said yesterday that work had wrapped up on the annual defense policy bill, and the House is expected to vote on the measure later this week, with the Senate expected to take up the legislation next week. Details of the bill released late last night included a provision to move up completion of the cruise missile warhead that was originally drafted by the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year. Senate authorizers added language that would allow the FPU to be delayed until 2026 with the approval of U.S. Strategic Command. The Administration earlier this year delayed the FPU for the cruise missile warhead program from 2024 to 2027 due to budget concerns, and it voiced concerns this summer about plans to accelerate the program.
The compromise bill also drops a House-authored provision that would have prevented the Pentagon from spending money in FY 2015 to implement the New START Treaty over concerns about Russian actions in Ukraine and its violations of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, replacing it with a requirement for the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on why New START is in the interest of the United States. Another House provision to keep ICBM silos in indefinite warm status was softened and now requires that ICBM silos be maintained in warm status only through the duration of the New START Treaty.
