Official: Time running out to update nukes

Associated Press

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.

In describing how little room the Pentagon has to extend the life of its decades-old nuclear forces, the top U.S. nuclear war-fighting commander, Navy Adm. Cecil Haney, says “we’re at the brick wall stage.”

Time to begin modernizing the country’s nuclear weapons is running short, he and other Pentagon leaders say. They contend the force is still in fighting shape – “safe, reliable and effective” is the official mantra. But they also argue the time has come to begin modernizing the force or risk eroding its credibility as a deterrent to attack by others.

They don’t face brick wall-like resistance in Congress, but the debate over spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build and field a new generation of nuclear-capable bombers, submarines and land-based missiles is just beginning.

Critics say full-scale modernization is neither affordable nor necessary.

Robert Work, the deputy secretary of defense, said the Pentagon will need an estimated $18 billion a year between 2021 and 2035 to modernize the three “legs” of the U.S. nuclear triad – weapons capable of being launched from land, sea and air.

“We need to replace these,” Work said. “We can’t delay this anymore.”