SUPPORT FOR INTEROPERABLE WARHEAD STRATEGY

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing
July 18, 2013
SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL VOICES SUPPORT FOR INTEROPERABLE WARHEAD STRATEGY

The Obama Administration’s support of a “3+2” vision for the future of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, which includes the production of three interoperable warheads, has received in recent months some pushback from Congress and arms control experts, both because of technical concerns and the potential price tag of the warheads. But Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Jim Miller said yesterday that the Administration isn’t wavering in its support for the strategy, which is key to the potential stockpile reductions laid out by President Obama last month in a speech in Berlin. “We continue to think it’s very sensible,” Miller said during a speech at the Capitol Hill Club. “We’ve been talking to people on the Hill in this regard and it comes down … to the resources required to implement the strategy. I’ve seen nothing in either our analysis or in comments that have come from the Hill or elsewhere to make me think we should shift from that strategy, and it does undergird the approach that we’re taking in the hedging for technical and geopolitical change.”

Key Congressional committees have raised concerns about the approach, especially in light of the potential price tag, which last month was revealed to be approximately $14 billion for the first interoperable warhead, a combination of the W78/W88-1 warheads. Two subsequent interoperable warheads could cost $13 billion and $12 billion, respectively. At the same time, the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee has put the brakes on the Navy portion of a study on the W78/W88-1 interoperable warhead, rejecting a $3 million request to reprogram Fiscal Year 2013 funds. Miller, however, was undeterred. “We’ll continue to make the case,” he said. “We think the case makes sense and we’ll continue to answer any and all questions about why it makes sense, how to implement it, that Congress and others may have.”

July 22, 2013 at 7:35 AM

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