{"id":84223,"date":"2018-05-23T13:52:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T13:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/05\/23\/former-defense-officials-beg-congress-not-to-fund-new-nuclear-warhead\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:09:08","slug":"former-defense-officials-beg-congress-not-to-fund-new-nuclear-warhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/2018\/05\/23\/former-defense-officials-beg-congress-not-to-fund-new-nuclear-warhead\/","title":{"rendered":"Former defense officials beg Congress not to fund new nuclear warhead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 A group of prominent former national security officials have sent a letter to members of Congress asking that Capitol Hill not fund a major defense priority of the Trump administration: the creation of new low-yield nuclear warheads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter, delivered this week to members of the relevant committees with oversight on nuclear weapons, warns that pursuing so-called tactical nuclear weapons is a \u201cgateway to nuclear catastrophe\u201d that \u201cshould not be pursued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon\u2019s Nuclear Posture Review<\/a>, released in February, called for the creation of two new nuclear designs<\/a> \u2013 a low-yield variant of the W76 nuclear warhead, launched from the Trident II missiles aboard America\u2019s nuclear submarines, as well as a potential new sea-launched nuclear cruise missile. The letter targets the W76-2 variant, which the administration hopes to see funded starting in fiscal 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The systems are supposed to deter Russia<\/a> from using its own arsenal of low-yield nuclear weapons, an argument the authors of the letter do not support. <\/p>\n\n\n\t