{"id":53450,"date":"2022-06-07T20:12:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T20:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2022\/06\/07\/us-nuclear-commander-backs-sea-launched-cruise-missile-biden-would-cancel\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:59:23","slug":"us-nuclear-commander-backs-sea-launched-cruise-missile-biden-would-cancel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2022\/06\/07\/us-nuclear-commander-backs-sea-launched-cruise-missile-biden-would-cancel\/","title":{"rendered":"US nuclear commander backs sea-launched cruise missile Biden would cancel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2013 The head of U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the nation\u2019s nuclear arsenal, told Congress he supports the sea-launched cruise missile program despite the Biden administration\u2019s proposal to cancel it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Admiral Charles Richard endorsed the project in a letter to Congress last week obtained by Defense News. The letter to Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, comes as Congress prepares to mark up the annual defense authorization bill this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI support reestablishing SLCM-N as necessary to enhance deterrence and assurance,\u201d Richard said in the letter. \u201cThe current situation in Ukraine and China\u2019s nuclear trajectory have further convinced me a deterrence and assurance gap exists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Richard said he believes \u201ca low-yield, non-ballistic capability that can be made available without visible generation\u201d is needed to address that gap. He backed the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2022\/05\/04\/us-nuclear-commander-warns-of-deterrence-crisis-against-russia-and-china\/\" target=\"_blank\"> SLCM-N while testifying before the Senate in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are facing a crisis deterrence dynamic right now that we have only seen a few times in our nation\u2019s history,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Richard first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2022\/04\/05\/us-strategic-command-chief-sea-missile-cancellation-opens-deterrence-and-assurance-gap\/\" target=\"_blank\">came to the program\u2019s defense via a letter to lawmakers in April<\/a>. Republicans highlighted his letter and testimony in seeking to convince Democrats to buck the White House and save SLCM-N from the chopping block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn an era of great power competition, our nuclear triad is the cornerstone that supports all US military operations,\u201d Rogers said in a statement to Defense News on June 7. \u201cSLCM-N would fill a critical gap in our triad, providing a low-yield and flexible option. Limiting our nuclear deterrent by canceling SLCM-N is a dangerous decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., has indicated that Democrats in the lower chamber are unlikely to authorize SLCM-N in the defense authorization bill, staking out partisan battle lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith told the Council on Foreign Relations last month that SLCM-N would be a \u201cmistake because the idea is that those missiles would be put onto our attack submarines,\u201d which would \u201cundermine that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe used to have that capability, and we got rid of that capability primarily because we found it undermined the other missions of the attack submarine and didn\u2019t really add that much to our nuclear capability,\u201d said Smith. \u201cWe have cruise missile capability in other legs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Biden administration\u2019s Fiscal 2023 $813.4 billion national budget proposal earmarks $50.9 billion in nuclear weapons, a $7.7 billion increase from the previous budget request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the party\u2019s control of the House gives the Biden administration leverage in its efforts to scrap SLCM-N, Senate Democrats have so far remained noncommittal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., said last month that he has \u201cnot yet come to a conclusion\u201d on SLCM-N.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s going to be, obviously, an object of debate because we have opinions from military leaders like Admiral Richard and [Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley] that they consider it to be necessary or needed,\u201d he told Defense News<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate strategic forces panel chairman Angus King, I-Maine, told Defense News that he\u2019s in \u201cfact-finding mode.\u201d while indicating he may be favorably disposed toward maintaining SLCM-N.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">King noted that Richard\u2019s testimony last month \u201cinclines me to think that it is at least something we should continue to do research and development on and understand better what the options are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., also hopes to recruit Democrats in the upper chamber to rally behind SLCM-N.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur senior-most military officers are clear in their support for the sea-launched cruise missile \u2013 yet President Biden\u2019s administration continues to ignore their best military advice,\u201d Inhofe told Defense News. \u201cI call on the Biden administration to declassify its Nuclear Posture Review so we can publicly review and debate the inadequate strategy that underpins the misguided decision to cancel this program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the House and Senate defense bills take different positions on SLCM-N, lawmakers will have to hammer out a compromise in a conference committee later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/budget\/2022\/05\/19\/republicans-lay-battle-lines-over-bidens-plan-to-retire-b83-megaton-bomb\/\" target=\"_blank\">similar partisan debate is unfolding over the Biden administration\u2019s plans to retire the B83 megaton gravity bomb<\/a>, which is 80 to 100 times more powerful than the bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head of US Strategic Command, which oversees the nuclear arsenal, reiterated to Congress that he still supports the sea-launched cruise missile nuclear development program (SLCM-N) despite the Joe Biden administration\u2019s proposal to cancel the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":70099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3411],"class_list":["post-53450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"GE56TUK4YBCATADI647IL2NJUM","arc_canonical_url":"\/2022\/06\/07\/us-nuclear-commander-backs-sea-launched-cruise-missile-biden-would-cancel\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US nuclear commander backs sea-launched cruise missile Biden would cancel - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The head of US Strategic Command, which oversees the nuclear arsenal, reiterated to Congress that he still supports the sea-launched cruise missile nuclear development program (SLCM-N) despite the Joe Biden administration\u2019s proposal to cancel the project.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US nuclear commander backs sea-launched cruise missile Biden would cancel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The head of US Strategic 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