General Mark Welsh, outgoing Air Force chief of staff, said Wednesday that each leg of the U.S. nuclear triad will remain critical for strategic deterrence regardless of budget pressures, and that a separate account to fund the nuclear forces modernization for all three legs is worth considering.
“I’m a believer in the triad,” Welsh, who is retiring from his position July 1, told a group of reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast. “I believe that the benefits you get from having a very survivable capability, like the [submarine]-launched ballistic missile; a very flexible option, like a bomber; and a very responsive option, and relatively cheap option compared to the others, like the ICBM, is actually a good approach to provide strategic deterrence.”
A constrained defense budget and the expected $350 billion price tag for modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal over the next decade have led Pentagon officials to suggest that the Defense Department will eventually make trade-offs between updates to nuclear and conventional weapons programs.
This could mean changes or cuts to major programs or, although unlikely, even the elimination of an entire leg of the nuclear triad. Suggestions over the years have included stripping strategic bombers of their nuclear mission or entirely eliminating intercontinental ballistic missiles, for instance, largely to save costs.
Welsh argued, however, that all three legs are necessary from an operational standpoint: strategic bombers because of their recall capability, ballistic missile submarines due to their survivability, and intercontinental ballistic missiles because they are always on alert – in addition to being the least costly of the three legs.
Asked about the circumstances under which the Defense Department might consider moving from a triad to a dyad, Welsh said this could only happen “if resources really collapse and we have no way of modernizing anything.”
